i 


— 


. 

y; 


7/ 


-Douglas  Debates  in  Illinois 


1858-1908 


CIRCULAR  OF  SUGGESTIONS  FOR 
SCHOOL  CELEBRATIONS 


Prepared  by  a  Committee  from  the  Advisory  Commission 
to  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Illinois 
State  Historical  Library 


Issued  by  F.  G.  BLAIR,  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction 


C0UNCIL>W 


Springitbld,  Illinois 
Phillips  Bros.,  Statu  Printers. 


Date  Due 

- 4- 

j  "'  |  ■  11  ■ 

ILLINOIS  STATE  LIBRARY 


1151  011B7Tn  b 


Office  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction, 

Springfield,  Illinois,  March  i,  1908. 

To  the  Teachers  and  Pupils  of  Illinois: 

In  publishing  this  well  selected  and  valuable  collection  of  material 
on  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates  the  Department  of  Public  Instruction 
does  itself  an  honor  and  the  children  of  the  State  a  distinct  service. 
Its  preparation  has  required  the  time  and  energy  of  busy,  capable  men 
and  I  am  sure  that  the  teachers  and  pupils  will  fully  appreciate  the  ser¬ 
vices  rendered.  Although  purely  a  labor  of  love  on  their  part,  I  firmly 
believe  that  the  assurance  that  they  have  aroused  in  the  minds  of  the 
children  of  Illinois  a  keener  interest  in  and  a  better  understanding  of 
this  really  great  event  will  be  an  ample  and  a  satisfactory  reward  for 
their  effort. 

'The  topic  for  the  essay  to  be  prepared  for  the  educational  exhibit 
of  the  State  fair  by  pupils  of  the  graded  schools  and  high  schools  for 
this  year  is  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates.  This  circular  will  provide 
these  pupils  with  the  right  sort  of  material  to  use  in  the  writing  of 
these  essays. 

It  is  requested  that  at  least  one  copy  of  this  pamphlet  be  placed  in 
every  school  library  in  the  State. 

Yours  sincerelv, 


Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction. 


CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICTS,  1858. 


CIRCULAR  24 


Semi-Centennial 


OP  THE 


Lincoln  -  Douglas  Debates  in  Illinois 

1858-1908 


CIRCULAR  OF  SUGGESTIONS  FOR 
SCHOOL  CELEBRATIONS 


Prepared  by  a  Committee  from  the  Advisory  Commission 
to  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Illinois 
State  Historical  Library 


EDWIN  E.  SPARKS,  Chairman .  University  of  Chicago. 
JAMES  A.  JAMES,  Northwestern  University. 

EDWARD  C.  PAGE,  Northern  Illinois  State  Normal  School. 


Issued  by  F.  G.  BLAIR,  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction 


< 


Springfield,  Illinois 
Phillips  Bros.,  State  Printers. 

1908 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


https://archive.org/details/semicentennialof00illi_0 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Page. 

Suggestions  to  teachers .  6 

Introduction  .  7 

Origin  and  Outcome  of  the  Debates .  9 

An  Eastern  Reporter’s  View  of  Western  Stump  Speaking .  11 

As  a  Republican  Reporter  Saw  It .  12 

How  Douglas  reached  Illinois .  14 

The  Great  Debate  (from  the  Crisis) .  14 

The  Debate  and  the  Debaters  (from  The  Illini) .  16 

Birthplace  of  Douglas .  18 

Stephen  A.  Douglas,  by  Samuel  P.  Orth .  19 

Stephen  A.  Douglas,  by  Joseph  A.  Wallace .  20 

Abraham  Lincoln,  by  David  B.  Locke .  20 

Lincoln  and  Douglas,  by  Cassius  M.  Clay .  21 

Contrast  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  by  Gen.  James  B.  Fry .  22 

Douglas  and  Lincoln,  by  Stephen  B.  Warden .  22 

The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates .  22 

The  Great  Debate,  by  Samuel  P.  Orth .  23 

As  an  Eastern  Reporter  Saw  Them .  25 

How  Douglas  travelled . , .  25 

As  Douglas  appeared  at  close  of  debates .  26 

Selections  from  the  debates .  26 

Lincoln  and  Douglas  at  Freeport;  a  dialogue .  28 

Old  Dan  Tucker . 34 

A  Douglas  Song . 34 

Oh,  you  can’t  go  the  Caper,  Stephen .  34 

Wide  Awake  Club  song .  35 

For  Good  Little  Democrats .  35 

A  Boy’s  Wish . •• .  35 

A  Douglas  to  the  Fray .  36 

Douglas’  Complaint .  36 

Uncle  Abe .  36 

Emerson  on  Lincoln’s  Literary  Ability .  37 

Dedication  of  Gettysburg  Battle  Field .  37 

A  Last  Glimpse  of  the  Rivals .  37 

Bury  Me  in  the  Morning,  by  Stephen  A.  Douglas .  38 

Last  Words  of  Douglas . 38 

Bibliography  .  39 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  THE  TEACHERS  OF  ILLINOIS. 


The  year  1908  witnesses  the  semi-centennial  anniversary  of  the 
memorable  debate  between  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  Abraham  Lincoln 
for  the  vacant  L’nited  States  Senatorship  from  Illinois;  but  in  reality 
the  prize  was  larger  because  each  became  a  candidate  for  the  presi¬ 
dency  two  years  later.  Under  the  direction  of  the  Illinois  Historical 
Society,  celebrations  will  be  held  this  year  in  each  of  the  seven  places 
where  the  debates  took  place  and  on  the  exact  day,  viz :  Ottawa, 
August  21;  Freeport,  August  27;  Jonesboro,  Sept.  15;  Charleston, 
Sept.  18;  Galesburg,  Oct.  7;  Quincy,  Oct.  13;  Alton,  Oct.  15.  Public 
attention  will  thus  be  drawn  to  this  important  event  in  Illinois  history, 
and  the  time  seems  suited  to  a  study  of  the  debates,  their  origin  and 
results,  and  the  topics  they  mainly  discussed.  While  the  debates  belong 
properly  to  local  history,  in  their  results  they  became  a  part  of  national 
history.  To  devote  one  or  more  days  of  the  present  year  to  a  study  of 
the  debates  and  the  debaters  would  seem  to  be  time  well  spent. 

It  was  not  the  purpose  of  the  compilers  of  this  pamphlet  to  make 
programs  for  celebrating  special  days,  but  to  furnish  materials  from 
which  programs  could  be  made.  Only  such  selections  as  bear  directly 
on  the  debates  have  been  included,  with  possibly  one  or  two  exceptions. 
The  literature  on  both  Lincoln  and  Douglas  is  voluminous  and  can  be 
drawn  upon  at  will  to  supplant  the  material  here  given.  Teachers 
can  arrange  the  selections  in  this  pamphlet  as  readings  or  recitations 
or  songs  in  many  ways  to  make  up  an  attractive  program  for  an  after¬ 
noon.  Some  of  the  descriptions  lend  themselves  naturally  for  readings 
by  the  teacher  to  the  pupils,  with  such  explanations  as  will  make  the 
scenes  intelligible  to  the  youthful  imagination.  For  additional  matter 
bearing  on  the  debates,  consult  the  list  of  books  printed  in  this  pam¬ 
phlet.  The  list  is  not  intended  to  be  exhaustive,  but  such  volumes  have 
been  selected  as  are  likely  to  be  had  in  any  community.  If  this  booklet 
proves  serviceable  to  the  teachers  of  the  State,  the  compilers  will  be 
compensated  for  their  labor  of  love. 

Edward  C.  Page. 

Tames  A.  James, 

Edward  C.  Page. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  Hardin  county,  Kentucky,  Feb.  12, 
1809.  Little  is  known  of  his  boyhood  which  was  passed  in  the 
midst  of  most  desolate  surroundings.  The  family  moved  to  Indiana 
when  “Abe”  was  seven  years  old ;  twelve  years  later  they  emigrated  to 
Illinois,  settling  near  Decatur.  Privation,  trial  and  labor  he  knew 
intimately  in  those  days. 

All  told,  he  attended  schools,  such  as  they  were,  about  a  year.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  intervals  of  his  work,  he  is  said  to  have  read,  written  and 
ciphered  incessantly.  Although  knowledge  was  not  acquired  rapidly 
by  him,  he  mastered  such  books  as  he  could  procure.  Among  these 
were  the  Bible,  Aesop’s  Fables,  Pilgrim’s  Progress,  and  a  history  of 
the  United  States. 

As  a  laborer,  much  sought  after  because  of  his  strength  and  intelli¬ 
gence,  he  showed  the  characteristics  for  which  he  was  always  noted, 
such  as  generosity,  courage,  honesty,  ready  wit,  sympathy  and  fair- 
mindedness.  Flat-boatmen,  surveyor  and  store-keeper  in  turn,  he  was, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  admitted  to  the  practice  of  law.  He  became 
the  most  eminent  jury  lawyer  in  Illinois,  but  his  interest  was  in  poli¬ 
tics.  No  speaker  was  more  popular  or  effective. 

Elected  to  Congress  in  1847,  he  became  noted  for  his  anti-slavery 
views.  As  he  himself  said,  he  “voted  in  favor  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
in  one  way  or  another  about  forty  times.”  To  the  great  disappointment 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Lyman  Trumbull  defeated  him  for  the  United  States 
Senate  in  1855. 

But  his  career  really  began  when  during  the  summer  of  1858  he 
met  Stephen  A.  Douglas  in  joint  debate.  Objection  was  made  by  some 
of  his  friends  to  the  statement  he  proposed  to  include  in  his  speech 
accepting  the  nomination,  which  was  as  follows :  “A  house  divided 
against  itself  can  not  stand,  I  believe  this  government  can  not  endure 
permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.”  When  objection  was  made  by 
his  friends,  he  replied,  “Gentlemen,  I  have  thought  much  on  this  and 
it  must  remain.  If  it  must  be  that  I  go  down  because  of  this  speech, 
then  let  me  go  down  linked  to  truth.  This  nation  can  not  live  on 
injustice — a  house  divided  against  itself  can  not  stand.  I  say  it  again 
and  again.”  Such  an  outspoken  statement  of  his  convictions  was  to 
make  him,  although  defeated  by  Douglas  for  the  senate,  the  candidate 
of  the  northwest  for  the  presidency  in  i860. 


8 


Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  born  in  Brandon,  Vermont,  April  23,  1813, 
the  son  of  a  physician.  His  mother  was  left  a  widow  when  Stephen 
was  a  child,  and  when  grown  he  was  compelled  to  work  on  a  farm  to 
aid  in  supporting  the  family,  attending  school  only  during  the  winter 
months.  He  also  learned  the  trade  of  cabinet  maker.  Determining 
to  make  his  own  way  in  the  world,  he  came  to  Illinois  when  he  was 
twenty  years  of  age.  Being  admitted  to  the  bar  and  entering  politics, 
he  became  a  typical  man  of  the  west,  always  contending  for  the  rights 
of  that  section.  The  men  of  his  time  speak  of  his  fearlessness  and 
his  quickness  of  apprehension ;  his  strong  will  and  indomitable  energy. 
His  education  was  imperfect,  but  he  overcame  all  obstacles  by  an 
imperious  determination  to  succeed.  Preferment  came  to  him  so  often 
that  his  asking  almost  signified  the  granting  by  the  people.  The 
offices  of  Attorney  General  of  Illinois,  legislator,  Secretary  of  State 
and  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  were  given  to  him  within  the  space 
of  eight  years.  Three  times  he  was  elected  to  the  House  of  Representa¬ 
tives  and  was  serving  a  second  term  in  the  United  States  Senate  when 
his  place  was  contested  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  a  situation  which  led  to  the 
great  debate  between  the  two.  His  ambition  prompted  him  to  attempt 
to  win  national  regard  by  advocating  the  theory  that  the  people  of 
Kansas  should  be  allowed  to  determine  for  themselves  whether  they 
would  come  into  the  Union  a  free  or  slave  state.  Being  short  of 
statute  and  yet  of  powerful  physical  strength,  had  won  for  Douglas  the 
nickname  of  the  “Little  Giant.”  The  debate  was  said  to  be  a  contest 
between  “Old  Abe”  and  the  “Little  Giant.” 

At  the  close  of  the  debate  the  election  was  held  which  chose  a  ma¬ 
jority  of  the  State  Legislature  favorable  to  Douglas  instead  of  Lincoln 
and  the  former  was  consequently  returned  to  the  Senate.  Two  years 
later  he  was  nominated  by  one  branch  of  the  Democratic  party  for  the 
presidency  and  was  therefore  an  unsuccessful  candidate  against  his 
old  rival,  Lincoln.  Although  an  intense  partisan,  he  was  a  more  intense 
patriot  and  immediately  upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  he  tendered 
his  services  to  President  Lincoln.  He  died  in  1861  and  lies  buried  on 
the  lake  shore  in  Chicago. 


BIRTHPLACE  OF  ABRAHAM 


9 


The  Origin  and  the  Outcome  of  the  Debates. 


When  Lincoln  ended  his  single  term  in  Congress  in  March,  1849, 
he  retired  to  his  law  practice  and  gave  it  more  exclusive  attention 
than  ever  before.  During  the  next  five  years  he  was  gradually  losing 
his  interest  in  politics,  as  he  himself  tells  us.  The  passage  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  in  May  1854,  fathered  by  Senator  Douglas, 
with  its  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  changed  his  whole  atti¬ 
tude.  Immediately  he  was  “aroused,”  as  he  expressed  it.  His  strong 
patriotism  and  his  high  conception  of  legal  and  moral  justice  inspired 
him  with  a  new  zeal  and  he  was  soon  addressing  politcal  gatherings. 

Generally  the  ready  wit  and  broad  humor  of  the  speeches  of  former 
days  were  missing.  Instead,  the  listeners  were  moved  by  new  earnest¬ 
ness  and  seriousness  of  argument.  Passing  by  personal  issues,  leaving 
unmentioned  the  policies  of  the  day,  Lincoln  fixed  his  attention  upon 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  question ;  consequently,  he  came  to  be  regarded 
as  the  natural  antagonist  of  Douglas.  , 

At  the  State  fair,  with  its  usual  political  tournament,  these  leaders 
came  into  conflict.  Douglas  made  a  speech  on  the  first  day  of  the 
fair  to  which  Lincoln  replied  the  next  day  and  Douglas  made  re¬ 
joinder.  A  few  days  later  they  met  again  at  Peoria,  by  arrangement. 
And  so  the  issues  were  joined. 

Two  years  later,  on  the  occasion  of  the  organizaton  of  the  Republi¬ 
can  party  at  Bloomington,  Lincoln  made  an  impassioned  speech  which 
fixed  once  for  all  his  position  as  popular  leader  of  the  anti-slavery 
sentiment  of  Illinois.  The  civil  war  in  Kansas  and  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  only  served  to  arouse  Lincoln  to  earnestness  more  intense  than 
ever. 

In  June,  1857,  at  Springfield,  Douglas  made  an  elaborate  speech  on 
Kansas  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Two  weeks  later  at  the  same 
place,  Lincoln  made  a  telling  reply.  Thus  again  the  great  protagonists 
joined  issues  as  they  approached  the  campaign  of  1858,  in  which  a 
successor  to  Senator  Douglas  was  to  be  elected. 

Of  course  Douglas  had  no  rival  in  his  own  party  and,  of  course, 
the  Republicans  could  think  of  no  one  else  as  their  candidate  except 
Lincoln,  who,  alone  of  all  of  the  men  of  the  day,  had  with  any  scucess 
met  Douglas  in  political  discussion.  The  endorsement  of  Lincoln  was 
made  by  the  Republican  state  convention  June  16,  1858. 


IO 


On  the  evening  of  that  day  Lincoln  accepted  the  candidacy  in  a 
speech  which  was  one  of  the  most  carefully  wrought  out  and  perhaps 
the  most  important  of  his  whole  life.  It  sounded  the  keynote  of  the 
entire  contest.  We  quote  the  opening  sentences : 

“If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are,  and  whither  we  are  tending,  we 
could  better  judge  what  to  do  now,  and  how  to  do  it.  We  are  now  far  into 
the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object  and  con¬ 
fident  promise  of  putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation 
of  that  policy,  that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly 
augmented.  In  my  opinion,  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been 
reached  and  passed.  ‘A  house  divided  against  itself  can  not  stand.’  I  believe 
this  government  can  not  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free. 

I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved;  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall; 
but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing, 
or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further 
spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that 
it  is  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward 
till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new,  north  as 
well  as  south.” 

His  closing  sentences  ring  out  like  a  battle  cry : 

“Our  cause  must  be  entrusted  to,  and  conducted  by,  its  own  undoubted 
friends — those  whose  hands  are  free,  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work,  who  do 
care  for  the  result.  Two  years  ago  the  Republicans  of  the  nation  mustered 
over  thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong.  We  did  this  under  the  single  impulse 
of  resistance  to  a  common  danger,  with  every  external  circumstance  against 
us.  Of  strange  discordant,  and  even  hostile  elements  we  gathered  from  the 
four  winds,  and  formed  and  fought  the  battle  through,  under  the  constant 
hot  fire  of  a  disciplined,  proud,  and  pampered  enemy.  Did  we  brave  all  then, 
to  falter  now — now,  when  that  same  enemy  is  wavering,  dissevered  and 
belligerent?  The  result  is  not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail — if  we  stand  firm, 
we  shall  not  fail..  WTise  counsels  may  accelerate,  or  mistakes  delay  it;  but 
sooner  or  later  the  victory  is  sure  to  come.” 

The  battle  was  soon  on.  Douglas  assumed  the  offensive  and  Lincoln 
dogged  his  every  foot-step.  Douglas  made  speeches  at  Chicago, 
Bloomington  and  Springfield  in  quick  succession.  Lincoln  followed 
him  at  Chicago  and  Springfield  with  addresses  of  much  force. 

But  it  was  evident  that  Douglas,  with  his  air  of  superiority,  his 
elusive  strategy  in  argumentation,  his  sentimental  methods,  was  bound 
to  defeat  any  effort  to  secure  honest  investigation  or  intelligent  discus¬ 
sion  and  so  was  gaining  an  unfair  advantage.  Consequently,  Lincoln 
and  his  managers  determined  to  challenge  Douglas  to  a  formal  debate 
of  the  questions  at  issue.  The  challenge  was  accepted  and  the  terms 
easily  agreed  upon.  The  two  men  were  to  meet  at  one  place  in  each  of 
seven  congressional  districts;  Ottawa,  Freeport,  Jonesboro,  Charleston, 
Galesburg,  Quincy  and  Alton.  They  had  already  spoken  in  the  dis¬ 
tricts  in  which  Chicago  and  Springfield  were  located.  Douglas  was 
to  speak  one  hour  at  Ottawa,  Lincoln  to  reply  for  one  hour  and  a  half, 
and  Douglas  to  make  a  half  hour’s  rejoinder.  Lincoln  was  to  open 
and  close  at  Freeport,  and  so  on  alternately. 

This  gave  Douglas  four  openings  and  closings  and  Lincoln  only 
three ;  but  Lincoln  agreed  to  it,  probably  not  altogether  out  of  good 
nature,  for  in  regard  to  a  similar  arrangement  on  an  occasion  several 
years  before,  he  said  “My  consenting  to  it  was  not  wholly  unselfish, 
for  I  suspected,  if  it  were  understood  that  the  judge  was  entirely 


II 


done,  you  Democrats  would  leave  and  not  hear  me ;  but  by  giving  him 
the  close,  I  felt  confident  you  would  stay  for  the  fun  of  hearing  him 
skin  me.’’ 

Soon  after  the  debates  were  begun  it  was  evident  that  Douglas  was 
now  on  the  defensive.  Under  the  impartial  rules  of  debate  and  con¬ 
fronted  by  audiences  made  up  of  friend  and  foe,  his  artful  expedients, 
his  adroit  evasion,  his  equivocal  logic  were  no  match  for  the  keen 
analysis,  the  unerring .  logic,  the  concise  statement,  the  profound 
earnestness  and  the  fervid  eloquence  of  his  opponent. 

And  so  the  campaign  was  fought  and  the  election  for  members  of 
the  Legislature  was  held.  The  Republican  ticket  received  125,430 
votes,  and  the  Douglas  ticket  121,609.  But  by  virtue  of'  an  unfair 
legislative  apportionment,  the  Democrats  had  54  votes  on  joint  ballot 
in  the  General  Assembly  and  the  Republicans  only  46.  So  Douglas 
was  re-elected  Senator. 

Such  were  the  immediate  results  of  the  contest.  The  indirect  results 
were  far  reaching.  In  the  first  place,  Lincoln  had  compelled  Douglas 
to  declare  that  the  people  of  a  territory,  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  de¬ 
cision,  might  contrive  to  keep  slavery  out  of  the  territory.  This 
greatly  angered  the  south  and  irrevocably  set  that  section  against 
Douglas’  aspirations  for  the  presidency.  As  a  result,  the  Democratic 
party  was  irreparably  rent  in  twain  in  i860. 

In  the  second  place,  with  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  as  the  northern 
Democratic  candidate  for  the  presidency  in  i860,  the  Republicans  were 
compelled  to  nominate  an  Illinois  candidate,  if  they  hoped  to  carry 
the  State,  and  of  course  that  state  was  necessary  to  secure  national 
success.  Therefore,  the  logic  of  the  situation  compelled  the  nomination 
of  Lincoln,  the  only  man  who  had  ever  met  Douglas  successfully  in  de¬ 
bate  ;  the  only  man  who  had  won  more  votes  than  he  in  a  popular 
election. 

It  is  not  fulsome  praise  to  say  that  from  the  standpoint  both  of 
forensic  merit  and  of  far-reaching  results  the  Lincolin-Douglas  de¬ 
bates  stand  among  the  momentous  events  of  all  nations  and  of  all 
ages. 


AN  EASTERN  REPORTER’S  VIEW  OF  WESTERN  STUMP  SPEAKING. 

“It  is  astonishing  how  deep  an  interest  in  politics  this  people  take.  Over 
long  weary  miles  of  hot  and  dusty  prairie  the  processions  of  eager  partisans 
come — on  foot,  on  horsebock,  in  wagons  drawn  by  horses  or  mules;  men, 
women,  and  children,  old  and  young;  the  half  sick,  just  out  of  the  last 
‘shake’;  children  in  arms,  infants  on  the  maternal  breast,  pushing  on  in 
clouds  of  dust  and  beneath  the  blazing  sun;  settling  down  at  the  town  where 
the  meeting  is,  with  hardly  a  chance  for  sitting,  and  even  less  opportunity 
for  eating;  waiting  in  anxious  groups  for  hours  at  the  places  of  speaking, 
talking,  discussing,  litigious,  vociferous,  while  the  war  artillery,  the  music 
of  the  bands,  the  waving  of  banners,  the  huzzai  "  of  the  crowds,  as  delegation 
after  delegation  appears;  the  cry  of  the  peddles  ^ending  all  sorts  of  wares, 
from  an  infallible  cure  of  ‘agur’  to  a  monster  w«u.  v  melon  in  slices  to  suit 
the  purchasers — combine  to  render  the  occasion  a  scene  of  confusion  and 
commotion.  The  hour  of  one  arrives  and  a  perfect  rush  is  made  for  the 


12 


% 

grounds;  a  column  of. dust  is  rising  to  the  heavens  and  fairly  deluging  those 
who  are  hurrying  on  through  it.  Then  the  speakers  come  with  flags,  and 
banners,  and  music,  surrounded  by  cheering  partisans.  Their  arrival  at 
the  grounds  and  immediate  approach  to  the  stand  is  the  signal  for  shouts 
that  rend  the  heavens.  They  are  introduced  to  the  audience  amidst  pro¬ 
longed  and  enthusiastic  cheers;  they  are  interrupted  by  frequent  applause; 
and  they  sit  down  finally  amid  the  same  uproarious  demonstration.  The 
audience  sit  or  stand  patiently  throughout,  and,  as  the  last  word  is  spoken, 
make  a  break  for  their  homes,  first  hunting  up  lost  members  of  their 
families,  getting  their  scattered  wagon  loads  together,  and,  as  the  daylight 
fades  away,  entering  again  upon  the  broad  prairies  and  slowly  picking 
their  way  back  to  the  place  of  beginning.” — Special  correspondence  from 
Charleston,  Illinois,  to  the  New  York  Post,  Sept.  24,  1858. 


AS  A  REPUBLICAN  REPORTER  SAW  IT. 

(Special  Correspondence  of  the  Missouri  Democrat,  a  Republican  Paper.) 

St.  Louis,  Wednesday,  Sept.  29,  1858. 

A  brief  visit  to  our  sister  State  of  'Illinois,  will  convince  anyone  who 
may  be  skeptical  on  the  subject,  that  the  temperature  of  the  political 
atmosphere  east  of  the  Mississippi,  is  of  tropical  intensity.  The  excitement 
pervaded  all  sections  of  the  State  and  all  classes  of  its  citizens.  We,  in 
Missouri,  are  no  strangers  to  political  contests  of  a  fierce  and  absorbing 
character,  but  the  pending  one  in  Illinois,  surpasses  anything  we  have  ex¬ 
perienced.  Our  neighbors’  minds  are  so  wholly  concentrated  in  the  canvass, 
that  one  might  say,  they  would  not  be  sensible  to  the  throes  of  an  earthquake, 

any  more  than  the  Roman  and  Carthagenian  armies  were  at  Thrasimene. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

We  put  up  at  the  St.  Nicholas,  where  we  met  Mr.  Lincoln  next  morning. 
No  two  men  could  exhibit  a  stronger  contrast  than  he  and  Douglas.  The 
contrast  is  so  marked,  morally  and  intellectually,  as  physically.  Douglas 
is  short  and  thick;  Lincoln  is  tall  and  slender.  The  former  is  fleshy  and 
ruddy  in  the  face;  the  latter  is  spare,  and  his  complexion  dark.  He  is 
considerably  over  six  feet,  and  hence  the  sobriquet  of  Long  Abe.  His 
weight  at  present  is  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  pounds — several  pounds 
more  than  it  was  when  he  commenced  his  canvass.  He  speaks  in  a  genial, 
humorous  style,  and  eschews  rant  and  boisterous  declamation,  while 
Douglas  seldom  utters  anything  else.  He  is  scrupulous  in  his  statement 
of  facts,  and  treats  his  opponent  with  a  deference  which  the  latter  is  in¬ 
capable  of  reciprocating.  Judging  from  the  speech  which  Lincoln  delivered 
that  day,  I  should  think  he,  more  than  any  public  man  of  the  present  time, 
infuses  the  milk  of  human  kindness,  and  the  frankness  and  courtesy  of  a 
gentleman  of  the  old  school  into  his  discussions.  He  says  nothing  calculated 
to  wound  the  feelings  of  Douglas,  except  the  feelings  of  ambition,  and 
that  his  arguments  sorely  wound.  He  wins  his  way  rather  than  forces  it, 
while  his  opponent  deals  in  exaggerated  statements,  glaring  sophistries,  and 
coarse,  fierce  declamation.  Douglas  has  cast  his  fortunes  on  a  sentiment — 
the  antipathy  of  the  white  to  the  black  race,  and  he  spares  no  effort,  and 
disregards  all  considerations  of  justice  or  honest}"  in  his  labors  to  blacken 
the  Republican  party  with  the  odium  of  negro  equality.  He  is  conscious 
that  all  debates  on  the  acknowledged  doctrines  of  both  parties  must  result 
in  his  discomfiture,  and  consequently  the  staple  of  his  speeches  is  a  tirade 
of  vulgar  demagogism,  as  slanderous  as  it  is  absurd.  Whatever  incidental 
topics  he  may  treat,  it  will  be  found  that  the  substance  of  his  speeches  in 
this  canvass  is  an  invocation  of  prejudice — a  prosecution  of  the  Republican 
party  for  sentiments  which  they  repudiate,  and  from  which  their  dogmas 
vindicate  them  completely.  Lincoln,  on  the  contrary,  confines  himself  to 
the  record,  and  measures  the  language  in  which  he  enforces  his  charges 
against  Douglas  and  the  National  Democratic  party.  He  has  not  once  dur¬ 
ing  the  canvass  suffered  himself  to  be  betrayed  into  exaggeration  or  vindi- 


13 


cativeness,  much  less  into  acerbity  of  temper;  whereas  Douglas  has  fallen 
into  an  impotent  passion  several  times,  and  expressed  himself  in  disgusting- 
epithets  applied  to  his  opponents. 

When  the  time  came  for  going  to  Jacksonville,  Lincoln  and  Blair  were 
induced  by  their  admiring  friends  at  Springfield  into  a  carriage  which 
took  up  its  appointed  place  in  the  procession  that  marched  to  the  depot. 
From  an  early  hour  in  the  morning  Springfield  had  been  agitated  with  the 
note  of  preparation.  The  reveille  was  played  at  six  o’clock  in  the  square 
which  surrounds  the  capitol.  Flags  and  music,  and  the  movements  of  men 
in  uniform,  and  other  signs  showed  that  the  day  was  to  be  a  gala-day.  The 
special  train  for  the  occasion  was  not  capable  of  carrying  one-third  of 
those  who  were  going  to  the  meeting.  A  delay  of  an  hour  ensued,  for  the 
managers  of  the  railroad  had  to  tax  all  their  resources  to  furnish  the 
requisite  number  of  cars.  Not  less  than  a  thousand  persons  went  from 
Springfield  to  Jacksonville.  The  train  was  as  long  a  passenger  train  as  I 
ever  saw.  We  enumerated  Republican  delegations  at  every  intermediate 
town,  and  crowds  of  spectators  who  cheered  lustily  for  Lincoln. 

The  adjoining  counties  of  Sangamon  and  Morgan,  through  which  we  passed* 
and  in  which  Springfield  and  Jacksonville  are  respectively  situated,  are  in 
a  high  state  of  cultivation.  The  country  is  level  and  the  soil  a  dark  rich 
loam.  The  hedges  of  osage  orange,  which  are  numerous,  and  which  promise- 
before  long  to  surround  every  field,  are  a  novel  and  a  very  pleasing  feature. 
Their  beauty  as  well  as  utility  is  remarkable  in  a  treeless  prairie.  No 
resident  of  a  slave  state  could  pass  through  the  splendid  farms  of  Sanga¬ 
mon  and  Morgan,  without  permitting  an  envious  sigh  to  escape  him  at  the 
evident  superiority  of  free  labor.  In  the  slave  states,  it  would  seem,  that 
man  and  the  soil  which  he  cultivates  are  enemies.  It  would  seem  that  he 
must  extort  its  produce  as  the  tax-gatherer  extorts  tribute  from  a  conquered 
but  hostile  people.  In  the  free  states  on  the  contrary  the  soil  seems  to 
shower  its  wealth  upon  the  cultivator  with  a  most  generous  and  royal 
bounty.  It  brings  forth  kindly  all  abundance,  and  smiles  upon  him  in 
all  the  four  seasons.  The  dumb  earth  itself  seems  to  wear  a  cheerless  aspect, 
and  to  yield  its  wealth  charily  and  reluctantly  to  slave  labor. 

The  reception  which  Lincoln  and  Blair  received  at  Jacksonville,  was  cordial 
and  magnificent.  The  street  which  leads  from  the  depot  to  the  public 
square,  was  filled  with  people  on  foot,  on  horseback,  and  in  vehicles,  with  a. 
multitude  of  devices,  mottoes,  flags,  etc.  The  procession  might  be  said 
without  any  stretch  of  fancy,  to  bear  a  striking  similitude  to  an  army  with 
banners.  The  sidewalks  were  crowded,  and  mainly  with  the  fair  sex.  The 
streets  of  the  square  were  also  crowded,  and  fair  faces  shone  in  all  the 
windows,  and  white  kerchiefs  were  waved  by  white  hands.  Any  estimate 
of  the  numbers  can  only  be  conjectural.  There  were  thousands  there,  but 
whether  ten,  fifteen  or  twenty,  I  was  unable  to  determine.  Prominent 
friends  of  Douglas,  admitted  that  it  was  a  larger  meeting  than  that  which 
their  leader  had,  and  they  tried  to  account  for  it  by  the  Fair  which  was  to 
commence  next  day,  and  which  they  said  had  brought  many  strangers  to 
town. 

Whether  this  circumstance  contributed  to  the  magnitude  and  spirit  of  the 
demonstration,  I  am  unable  to  say;  but  that  the  demonstration  was  the  most 
remarkable  and  colossal  one  I  hereby  affirm.  That  it  was  superior  to  the 
Douglas  demonstration  which  preceded  it,  is  conceded  by  all  who  witnessed 
both.  What  rendered  it  so  remarkable  to  me,  was  the  extent  to  which 
the  ladies  participated  in  it,  and  the  conspicuous  part  which  was  assigned 
to  them  in  programme.  We  behold  the  revival  of  the  customs  of  classic 
antiquity  in  our  electioneering  tactics.  Young  and  beautiful  virgins  clothed 
in  white  and  crowned  with  wreaths  of  leaves  and  flowers,  are  seen  in  our 
political  processions.  American  politics  are  reviving  those  ceremonies,  and 
borrowing  those  influences,  which  the  priests  of  Diana  found  so  graceful 
and  impressive.  There  were  two  barge-shaped  vehicles  in  the  procession  at 
Jacksonville,  each  containing  a  bevy  of  fair  young  girls,  numbering  some 
twenty  or  thirty.  Those  in  one  wore  the  chaste  ornament  of  the  wreath,  and 
carried  small  flags  in  their  hands  which  they  waved  incessantly,  like  so 


14 


many  goddesses  of  liberty.  Those  in  the  other  vehicle  could  boast  of  some¬ 
what  riper  charms.  They  wore  purple  velvet  hats,  all  of  the  same  pattern, 
and  as  they  passed,  you  would  think  their  beauty  would  have  entitled  them 
to  ride  with  the  dark-browed  Cleopatra  in  her  golden  barge  upon  the  Nile. 
There  besides,  dashing  equestriennes,  who  witched  the  young  men  writh 
graceful  horsemanship.  Indeed,  I  question  if  any  political  meeting  in  the 
country  has  brought  out  more  beautiful  women  or  more  of  them  than  the 
meeting  in  Jacksonville,  Monday.  By  subsequent  inquiry,  I  learned  that  the 
place  has  long  been  famous  for  the  charms  of  its  female  population. 


HOW  DOUGLAS  REACHED  ILLINOIS. 

From  a  Speech  at  Winchester,  Illinois,  Aug.  7,  1858. 

• 

“Twenty-five  years  ago,  I  entered  this  town  on  foot  with  my  coat  on  my 
arm,  without  an  acquaintance  within  a  thousand  miles  and  without  having 
where  I  could  get  money  to  pay  a  week’s  board.  Here  I  made  the  first  six 
dollars  I  ever  earned  in  my  life,  and  obtained  the  first  regular  occupation 
that  I  ever  pursued.  For  the  first  time  in  my  life,  I  then  felt  that  the 
responsibilities  of  manhood  were  upon  me,  although  I  was  under  age;  for 
I  had  none  to  advise  with,  and  knew  no  one  upon  whom  I  had  a  right  to  call 
for  assistance  or  for  friendship.  Here  I  found  the  then  settlers  of  the 
country  my  friends.  My  first  start  in  life  was  taken  here;  not  only  as  a 
private  citizen,  but  my  first  election  to  public  office  by  the  people  was 
conferred  upon  me  by  those  whom  I  am  now  addressing,  and  by  their  fathers. 
A  quarter  of  a  century  has  passed,  and  that  penniless  boy  stands  before  you 
with  his  heart  full  and  gushing  with  the  sentiments  which  such  associations 
and  recollections  necessarily  inspire.” — Philadelphia  North  American,  Aug. 
19,  1858. 


THE  GREAT  DEBATE. 

(From  “The  Crisis.”) 

It  was  but  a  few  minutes’  walk  to  the  grove  where  the  speaking  was  to  be. 
And  as  they  made  their  way  thither  Mr.  Lincoln  passed  them  in  a  Conestoga 
wagon  drawn  by  six  milk-white  horses.  Jim  informed  Stephen  that  the 
Little  Giant  had  had  a  six-horse  coach.  The  grove  was  black  with  people. 
Hovering  about  the  hem  of  the  crowd  were  the  sunburned  young  men  in 
their  Sunday  best,  still  clinging  fast  to  the  hands  of  the  young  women. 
Bands  blared  “Columbia,  Gem  of  the  Ocean.”  Fakers  planted  their  stands 
in  the  way,  selling  pain-killers  and  ague  cures,  watermelons  and  lemonade. 
Jugglers  juggled,  and  beggars  begged.  Jim  said  that  there  were  sixteen 
thousand  people  in  that  grove.  And  he  told  the  truth. 

%  Sfc  JjJ  ❖  H*  ^ 

In  the  midst  of  that  heaving  human  sea  rose  the  bulwarks  of  a  wooden 
stand.  As  they  drew  near  their  haven,  a  great  surging  as  of  a  tidal  wave 
swept  them  off  their  feet.  There  was  a  deafening  shout,  and  the  stand 
rocked  on  its  foundations.  Before  Stephen  could  collect  his  wits,  a  fierce 
battle  was  raging  about  him.  Abolitionist  and  democrat,  free  soiler  and 
squatter  sov,  defaced  one  another  in  a  rush  for  the  platform.  The  com¬ 
mitteemen  and  reporters  on  top  of  it  rose  to  its  defence.  Well  for  Stephen 
that  his  companion  was  along.  Jim  was  recognized  and  hauled  bodily  into 
the  fort,  and  Stephen  after  him.  The  populace  were  driven  off,  and  when 
the  excitement  died  down  again,  he  found  himself  in  the  row  behind  the 
reporters.  Young  Mr.  Hitt*  paused  while  sharpening  his  pencil  to  wave 
him  a  friendly  greeting. 

Stephen,  craning  in  his  seat,  caught  sight  of  Mr.  Lincoln  slouched  into 
one  of  his  favorite  attitudes,  his  chin  resting  in  his  hand. 


*  Robert  R.  Hitt  a  reporter  for  the  Chicago  Press  and  Tribune. 


15 


But  who  is  this,  erect,  aggressive,  searching  with  a  confident  eye  the 
wilderness  of  upturned  faces?  A  personage,  truly,  to  be  questioned  timidly, 
to  be  approached  advisedly.  Here  indeed  was  a  lion,  by  the  very  look  of  him, 
master  of  himself  and  of  others.  By  reason  of  its  regularity  and  masculine 
strength,  a  handsome  face.  A  man  of  the  world  to  the  cut  of  the  coat 
across  the  broad  shoulders.  Here  was  one  to  lift  a  youngster  into  the 
realm  of  emulation,  like  a  character  in  a  play  to  arouse  dreams  of  Wash¬ 
ington  and  its  senators  and  great  men.  For  this  was  one  to  be  consulted 
by  the  great  *  alone.  A  figure  of  dignity  and  power,  with  magnetism  to 
compel  moods.  Since,  when  he  smiled,  you  warmed  in  spite  of  yourself, 
and  when  he  frowned  the  world  looked  grave. 

The  inevitable  comparison  was  come,  and  Stephen’s  hero  was  shrunk 
once  more.  He  drew  a  deep  breath,  searched  for  the  word,  and  gulped. 
There  was  but  the  one  word.  How  country  Abraham  Lincoln  looked  beside 
Stephen  Arnold  Douglas! 

Had  the  Lord  ever  before  made  and  set  over  against  each  other  two 
such  different  men?  Yes,  for  such  are  the  ways  of  the  Lord. 

There  was  a  hush,  and  the  waves  of  that  vast  human  sea  were  stilled.  A 
man — lean,  angular,  with  coat  tails  flapping — unfolded  like  a  grotesque 
figure  at  a  side-show.  No  confidence  was  there.  Stooping  forward,  Abraham 
Lincoln  began  to  speak,  and  Stephen  Brice  hung  his  head,  and  shuddered. 
Could  this  shrill  falsetto  be  the  same  voice  to  which  he  had  listened  only 
that  morning?  Could  this  awkward,  yellow  man  with  his  hands  behind 
his  back  be  he  whom  he  had  worshipped?  Ripples  of  derisive  laughter  rose 
here  and  there,  on  the  stand  and  from  the  crowd.  Thrice  distilled  was 
the  agony  of  those  moments! 

But  what  was  this  feeling  that  gradually  crept  over  him?  Surprise? 
Cautiously  he  raised  his  eyes.  The  hands  were  coming  round  to  the  front. 
Suddenly  one  of  them  was  thrown  sharply  back,  with  a  determined  gesture, 
the  head  was  raised, — and — and  his  shame  was  forgotten.  In  its  stead 
wonder  was  come.  But  soon  he  lost  even  that,  for  his  mind  was  gone  on 
a  journey.  And  when  again  he  came  to  himself  and  looked  upon  Abraham 
Lincoln,  this  was  a  man  transformed.  The  voice  was  no  longer  shrill.  Nay, 
it  was  now  a  powerful  instrument  which  played  strangely  on  those  who  heard. 
Now  it  rose,  and  again  it  fell  into  tones  so  low  as  to  start  a  stir  which  spread 
and  spread,  like  a  ripple  in  a  pond,  until  it  broke  on  the  very  edge  of  that 
vast  audience. 

******* 

That  short  hour  came  all  too  quickly  to  an  end.  And  as  the  Moderator 
gave  the  signal  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  it  was  Stephen’s  big  companion  who 
snapped  the  strain,  and  voiced  the  sentiment  of  those  about  him. 

Standing  up,  the  very  person  of  the  Little  Giant  was  contradictory,  as 
was  the  man  himself.  His  height  was  insignificant.  But  he  had  the  head 
and  shoulders  of  a  lion,  and  even  the  lion’s  roar.  What  a  contrast  the  ring 
of  his  deep  bass  to  the  tentative  falsetto  of  Mr.  Lincoln’s  opening  words! 
If  Stephen  expected  the  judge  to  tremble,  he  was  greatly  disappointed.  Mr. 
Douglas  was  far  from  dismay. 

******* 

It  only  remains  to  be  told  how  Stephen  Brice,  coming  to  the  Brewster 
House  after  the  debate,  found  Mr.  Lincoln.  On  his  knee,  in  transports  of 
delight,  was  a  small  boy,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  serenely  playing  on  the 
child’s  Jew’s-harp.  Standing  beside  him  was  a  proud  father  who  had 
dragged  his  son  across  two  counties  in  a  farm  wagon,  and  who  was  to 

return  on  the  morrow  to  enter  this  event  in  the  family  Bible. 

******* 

This  Lincoln  of  the  black  loam,  who  built  his  neighbor’s  cabin  and  hoed 
his  neighbor’s  corn,  who  had  been  storekeeper  and  postmaster  and  flat- 
boatman.  Who  had  followed  a  rough  judge  dealing  a  rough  justice  around 
a  rough  circuit;  who  had  rolled  a  local  bully  in  the  dirt;  rescued  women 
from  insult;  tended  the  bedside  of  many  a  sick  coward  who  feared  the 
judgment;  told  coarse  stories  on  barrels  by  candlelight  (but  these  are  pure 


i6 


beside  the  vice  of  great  cities);  who  addressed  political  mobs  in  the  raw, 
swooping  down  from  the  stump  and  flinging  embroilers  east  and  west. 
This  physician  who  was  one  day  to  tend  the  sick  bed  of  the  Nation  in  her 
agony;  whose  large  hand  was  to  be  on  her  feeble  pulse,  and  whose  knowledge 
almost  divine  was  to  perform  the  miracle  of  her  healing.  So  was  it  that 
the  physician  himself  performed  his  cures,  and  when  his  work  was  done, 
died  a  martyr. 

Abraham  Lincoln  died  in  His  Name. — From  Mr.  Winston  Churchill’s 
novel,  “The  Crisis,”  copyright,  1901,  by  The  Macmillan  Company. 


THE  DEBATE  AND  THE  DEBATERS, 

BY  COL.  CLARK  E.  CARR. 

“Yet,  while  the  Republicans  instinctively  turned  to  Mr.  Lincoln  in  this 
emergency,  they  still  had  misgivings  as  to  whether  he  was  equal  to  the  task 
of  meeting  Douglas.  Curiously,  even  yet  very  few  in  Illinois  had  come  to 
regard  Mr.  Lincoln  as  what  we  call  a  great  man.  How  could  so  homely, 
plain,  simple,  unpretentious,  and  droll  a  man  be  great,  He  was  simply  one 
of  the  common  people;  that  was  all.” 

Outside  of  Illinois,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  then  but  little  known.  Less  than  a 
year  before  the  Lincoln  and  Douglas  debates,  he  spent  a  week  at  Cincinnati 
trying  a  lawsuit  in  company  with  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  afterwards  the  great 
war  secretary  during  the  rebellion.  Reverdy  Johnson  was  the  attorney  on 
the  other  side  of  the  case.  These  two  great  men,  Stanton  and  Johnson, 
were  well  known.  Lincoln  was  not;  he  stayed  in  Cincinnati  a  week,  moving 
freely  about,  yet  not  twenty  men  knew  him  personally,  and  not  a  hundred 
would  have  known  who  he  was  had  his  name  been  spoken.  Mr.  Stanton 
afterwards  described  him,  from  his  impressions  of  that  first  meeting,  as 
“a  long,  lank  creature  from  Illinois,  wearing  a  dirty  linen  duster  for  a  coat, 
the  back  of  which  the  perspiration  had  splotched  with  stains  that  resembled 
a  map  of  the  continent.” 

******* 

“The  people  of  Illinois  were  interested  from  the  first.  Soon  the  debates 
began  to  attract  attention  beyond  the  limits  of  the  State.  People  in  other 
sections  asked,  “who  is  the  man  Lincoln?”  and  wondered  that  they  had  not 
known  something  of  him  before.  As  the  interest  augmented,  newspapers 
both  east  and  west  took  up  the  speeches  and  published  them  in  full. 
Their  readers  awaited  their  publications  with  eagerness  and  read  them  with 
avidity,  and  men  on  either  side  made  their  arguments  their  own.  In  every 
home,  on  every  farm,  in  every  tavern,  store  shop  and  mill,  from  New  York 
to  San  Francisco,  the  statements  and  arguments  were  repeated  and  dis¬ 
cussed.  “Did  you  see  how  Lincoln  turned  the  tables  on  the  ‘Little  Giant’  with 
the  ‘Dred  Scott  decision?’  asked  one.  ‘Read  it!  read  it  aloud!’  was  the  re¬ 
sponse.  “See  how  Douglas  answered  him!”  cried  another;  “read  that!”  and 
it  was  read.  “The  ‘Little  Giant’  is  too  much  for  your  Springfield  lawyer!” 
said  one.  “The  ‘Little  Giant’  has  finally  found  his  match!”  another  man 
responded.  “It’s  all  very  well  for  Lincoln  to  talk  his  abolition  sentiments 
in  northern  Illinois,”  said  the  Douglas  men,  after  the  Ottawa  and  Freeport 
debates.  “You  just  wait  until  the  ‘Little  Giant’  trots  him  down  into  Egypt, 
and  you’ll  laugh  out  of  the  other  side  of  your  mouth!” 

******* 

“It  was  curious  to  look  into  the  faces  of  the  people  who  assembled  to  hear 
Lincoln  ond  Douglas  in  these  famous  debates.  The  debates  were  held  in  open 
air;  and,  unlike  ordinary  political  meetings,  both  sides  were  fully  represented. 
This  fact,  more  than  anything  else,  had  prompted  Mr.  Lincoln  to  challenge 
the  senator  to  meet  him  face  to  face.  ‘I  want  to  reach  the  democrats,’  he 
said  to  his  friends.  They  are  so  prejudiced  that  they  will  not  attend  a  re¬ 
publican  meeting;  but  they  will  all  come  out  to  hear  Douglas  and  this  will 
give  me  a  chance  at  them.” 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


Pure  was  thy  life  ;  its  bloody  close 

Has  placed  thee  with  the  sons  of  light, 

Among  the  noblest  host  of  those 

Who  perished  in  the  cause  of  right. 

— W.  C.  Bryant. 

We  rest  in  peace,  where  his  sad  eyes 
Saw  peril,  strife,  and  pain. 

His  was  an  awful  sacrifice, 

And  ours  a  precious  gain. 


— Whittier. 


17 


As  has  been  said,  neither  party  spared  either  pains  or  expense  to  have 
its  side  represented  in  the  most  effective  manner.  The  date  of  each  joint 
debate  was  fixed  long  before  it  occurred  and  each  party  sought  to  make  a 
more  imposing  demonstration  in  numbers  and  equipments  than  the  other 
Meetings  were  held  by  each  party  in  advance,  at  every  cross  roads  within  a 
radius  of  fifty  miles  of  the  place  where  a  joint  debate  was  to  occur,  in  order  to 
awaken  its  adherents  to  the  importance  of  being  present  to  encourage  and 
support  its  champion.  They  organized  themselves  into  great  delegations 
which  rallied  at  convenient  points  and  formed  in  processions  of  men  and 
women,  in  wagons  and  carriages  and  on  horseback,  and,  headed  by  bands  of 
music,  with  flags  flying  and  hats  and  handkerchiefs  waving,  proceeded  to  the 
place  of  meeting.  Many  of  these  processions  were  more  than  a  mile  in 
length.  As  they  marched,  the  air  was  rent  with  cheers — in  the  republican 
procession  for  “Honest  Old  Abe,”  and  in  the  democratic  for  “The  Little 
Giant.”  The  sentiments  printed  in  great  letters  upon  the  banners  carried 
in  each  of  these  processions  left  no  one  in  doubt  which  party  it  belonged  to. 
Upon  the  banners  of  the  Douglas  processions  were  such  sentiments  as 
“Squatter  Sovereignty.” 

“Popular  Sovereignty!”  “Let  the  people  rule!”  “This  is  a  white  man’s 
government!”  “No  nigger  equality!”  “Hurrah  for  the  Little  Giant!”  The 
republican  processions,  on  the  other  hand,  carried  banners  with  such 
mottoes  as  “Hurrah  for  honest  old  Abe!”  “Lincoln  the  rail-splitter!”  and 
“Giant  Killer!”  “No  more  slave  territory!”  “All  men  are  created  equal!” 
“Free  Kansas!”  “No  more  compromise!” 

*  *  *  *  Hs  *  * 

Each  party  had  great  wagons  or  chariots  specially  fitted  up,  drawn  by 
four,  eight,  and  sometimes  twenty  horses,  bearing  young  ladies  each  repre¬ 
senting  one  of  the  States  of  the  Union.  In  the  republican  processions  one  of 
these  young  ladies  was  usually  dressed  in  mourning,  to  represent  Kansas. 
Over  the  young  ladies  in  a  Douglas  chariot  was  displayed  a  banner  bearing 
the  sentiment,  “Fathers  protect  us  from  negro  husbands.”  As  the  processions 
came  into  town,  they  were  met  by  marshals  of  their  respective  parties,  on 
horseback,  and  conducted  to  their  meeting  places,  greeted,  as  they  passed 
through  the  streets,  by  cheers  from  their  own  parties  and  jeers  from  their 
opponents,  which  were  answered  in  the  same  spirit.  Finally  they  all  as¬ 
sembled  before  the  grand  stand;  seats  could  be  provided  for  comparatively 
few,  and  the  most  of  the  people  were  standing.  Democrats  and  republicans 
were  packed  into  a  solid  mass  together,  good-naturedly  talking  and  chaffing 
each  other.  Upon  the  stage  were  seated  prominent  men  of  both  parties. 
A  chairman  and  secretary,  and  time-keepers  who  had  previously  been  agreed 
upon,  were  early  in  their  seats,  but  made  no  effort  to  restrain  the  great  crowd 
until  after  the  speakers  had  arrived  and  received  the  deafening  applause 
of  their  followers. 

It  was  a  curious  sight  when  the  contestants  ascended  to  their  places  on  the 
platform — Lincoln  was  so  tall  and  Douglas  so  short,  Lincoln  so  angular  and 
Douglas  so  sturdy,  Lincoln  so  spare  and  Douglas  so  compact  and  rotund. 
They  alternated  in  opening  and  closing  the  debates — the  opening  speaker 
an  hour,  his  competitor  following  with  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  the  opening 
speaker  closing  with  half  an  hour.  Every  moment  of  time  was  important 
to  each  speaker.  The  debate  opened  at  precisely  the  moment  fixed  upon,  and 
the  moment  a  speaker’s  time  expired  he  was  called  by  the  time  keepers,  after 
which  he  could  only  finish  the  sentence  he  had  begun. 

(Col.  Clark  E.  Carr  in  “The  Illini,”  by  permission  of  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co., 
Chicago.) 


—2  D 


i8 


/ 


THE  BIRTHPLACE  OF  STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAc. 

BY  JOSEPH  WALLACE. 

Brandon  Vt.,  April  14,  1871. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  State  Register. 

“But  to  an  Illinoisan  Brandon  is  only  of  special  interest  from  its  association 
with  the  early  life  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  I  strolled  this  morning  through 
the  old  cemetery  where  the  father  of  the  senator  was  buried.  On  a  plain 
stone  of  bluish  marble  at  the  head  of  his  grave  is  this  simple  inscription: 
Dr.  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  died  July  13,  1813,  in  the  32d  year  of  his  age.”  By 
his  side  lie  the  remains  of  his  (the  doctor’s)  father  and  mother,  the  former 
of  whom  deceased  in  1829,  aged  69,  and  the  latter  in  1812,  in  the  56th  year 
of  her  age.  Benajah  Douglas,  the  grandfather  of  the  senator,  was  one  of 
the  earliest  settlers  of  the  village.  He  was  a  farmer  by  occupation,  and  ac¬ 
cumulated  considerable  property  for  his  day.  I  am  told,  however,  by  an  old 
and  well  informed  resident  of  this  place,  that  the  senator’s  talents  were  main¬ 
ly  inherited  from  his  grandmother,  Martha  Douglas,  who  is  said  to  have  been 
a  woman  of  more  than  ordinary  intellect  and  force  of  character. 

I  also  visited  the  house  were  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  born,  and  where  his 
father  died.  It  is  a  plain  little  brown  frame,  and  one  and  a  half  stories  high, 
and  has  been  owned  and  occupied  by  a  family  of  the  name  of  Hyatt  for 
about  forty  years.  The  front  portion  of  the  building  has  undergone  but 
little  alteration  since  the  date  of  Mr.  Douglas’  birth.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  the  widow  of  Doctor  Douglas,  shortly  after  his  death,  removed  to  a  farm 
a  few  miles  in  the  country,  which  she  and  her  brother  had  jointly  inherited 
from  their  father,  and  there  remained  until  her  second  marriage,  when 
the  family  moved  to  Ontario  county,  New  York. 

As  I  stod  here  in  the  midst  of  this  quiet  New  England  town,  before  the 
modest  mansion  where  Senator  Douglas  first  saw  the  light  of  day,  I  thought 
of  the  wonderful  life  of  this  wonderful  man — how  he  was  cradled  and  passed 
his  boyhood  in  obscurity  among  these  verdant  hills  and  mountains;  of  his 
transition  hence  to  Canandaigua,  New  York,  and  schooling  there;  of  his  sub¬ 
sequent  removal  to  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  entrance  upon  the  study  of  law; 
of  his  tedious  and  toilsome  journey  southward  and  westward,  down  the 
Ohio  and  up  the  Mississippi  to  St.  Louis,  and  thence  to  Jacksonville;  of  his 
advent  in  Winchester,  Illinois,  in  the  character  of  a  pedagogue;  of  the  com¬ 
mencement  of  his  marvelous  public  career  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-two; 
of  the  rapidity  with  which  he  ascended  the  rounds  of  the  ladder  of  political 
distinction  until  he  reached  a  seat  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  and 
there,  from  the  theater  of  his  great  fame,  for  fourteen  years,  spoke  to  the 
toiling  millions  of  his  admiring  countrymen,  with  a  power,  eloquence  and 
effect  rarely  equalled  or  surpassed.  I  thought,  too  of  his  many  journeys 
back  and  forth  over  the  land;  of  the  peculiar  magnetism  of  his  personal 
presence,  and  the  talismanic  touch  of  his  hands;  of  his  memorable  senatorial 
campaign  with  his  great  rival,  Lincoln,  in  1858,  and  of  his  still  more  memor¬ 
able  canvass  for  the  presidency  in  1860;  and  I  also  thought  of  the  parting 
between  mother  and  son  when  the  young  Vermonter -first  started  out  in  the 
world. 

The  morning  young  Douglas  left  the  house  on  the  old  Granger  farm  his 
mother  walked  with  him  down  to  the  gate  that  opened  out  into  the  lane  and 
into  the  United  States  senate  and  put  her  arms  around  her  boy’s  neck  and 
kissed  him  good-bye. 

“When  are  you  coming  back  to  see  your  old  mother?”  she  asked  of  him. 
“On  my  way  to  congress,”  was  his  prophetic  reply.  There  is  a  Patmos  that 
rises  across  the  way  of  some  mortals. 

A  good  many  years  went  by  and  the  faithful  mother  used  to  go  down  to 
the  gate  of  the  lawn  and  look  along  the  lane  and  go  back  again  unconsoled. 
One  day  she  saw  a  man  coming  and,  though  he  had  grown  and  had  some  of 
that  tired  look  in  his  face  which  the  west  imprinted  on  its  young  men,  the 
woman  knew  that  was  her  boy.  He  held  in  his  hand  his  certificate  of  elec¬ 
tion  to  the  lower  house  of  the  national  congress  from  the  district  in  which 


19 


he  lived  in  Illinois.  He  was  on  his  way  to  congress.  Long  years  after  this, 
when  the  young  man  had  scars  on  his  political  armor,  made  in  contest  with 
the  giants  of  those  days,  and  when  he  was  in  the  race  for  the  white  house 
wreath  and  the  press  of  the  opposition  was  vindictive  in  its  attacks  upon 
him.  Douglas  stopped  on  his  return  from  Washington  to  visit  his  mother,  who 
had  in  the  meantime  moved  up  near  the  Canadian  border.  The  wagon  roads 
were  filled  with  the  plain  people  of  that  section  who  assembled  at  the 
station  to  meet  the  presidential  candidate.  An  old  woman  threw  her  arms 
about  the  neck  of  her  boy  in  the  presence  of  the  multitude  and  cried  out: 
“Ah,  they  do  not  know  my  boy  as  I  do,  or  they  would  not  say  what  they  do 
about  him,”  referring  to  the  attacks  of  the  opposition.  And  the  son,  forget¬ 
ting  for  the  moment  that  he  was  in  a  presidential  contest,  embraced  the  old 
lady  and  responded  in  the  hearing  of  the  concourse,  “Thank  God,  I  have 
found  my  mother.” 


STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS. 

BY  SAMUEL  P.  ORTH. 

His  father  was  a  skilful  physician,  and  his  mother  a  woman  of  unusual 
mental  prowess.  The  father  died  when  Stephen  was  only  two  months  old. 
A  bachelor  brother  of  the  widow  provided  a  home  for  them.  Stephen 
attended  the  village  school  and  grew  into  a  reckless  little  dare-devil,  who 
would  swim  the  mill-pond  to  spite  his  teacher  and  pommel  his  playmates 
for  sheer  love  of  combat.  He  was  a  bright  boy  with  his  books,  and  wished 
to  go  to  college.  But  his  uncle  was  “close,”  and  instead  of  going  to  college 
Stephen,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  was  apprenticed  to  a  cabinet  maker  in  Middle- 
bury.  His  master  was  a  good-natured  deacon,  who  allowed  the  apprentice 
boy  time  to  read  his  favorite  books,  the  lives  of  Napoleon  and  of  Caesar 
and  of  Alexander,  heroes  whose  traditions  he  wove  into  every  phase  of  his 
own  career.  In  truth  he  was  the  Little  Napoleon  of  the  village.  He  led  the 
young  people  in  combat  and  debate.  The  prophecy  of  his  babyhood  that 
he  would  grow  into  a  great  giant  remained  unfulfilled.  He  became  the 
“Little  Giant”  instead,  scarcely  five  feet  in  height,  and  while  he  weighed, 
tradition  says,  14  pounds  when  he  was  born,  he  could  scarcely  summon  140 
pounds  when  he  developed  into  manhood.  Nor  was  his  health  robust. 
Throughout  his  early  life  he  was  compelled  to  suffer  bodily  discomforts. 
But  Stephen  in  spite  of  his  pigmy  stature  and  frail  health  was  remarkably 
muscular  and  fond  of  a  fight. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

His  muscular  strength  was  phenomenal.  The  pygmy  who  was  often  held 
upon  the  knees  of  his  clients  or  constituents,  as  they  familiarly  consulted 
with  him,  was  as  powerful  as  an  ox.  One  day  when  boarding  a  Mississippi 
flat-boat  he  was  annoyed  by  a  great,  brawling,  rawboned  braggart.  “Who 
are  you,  my  big  chicken?”  Douglas  asked.  “I  am  a  high  pressure  steamer,” 
the  bully  answered.  “And  I  am  a  snag,”  said  the  judge  as  he  picked  up  the 

fellow  and  pitched  him  into  the  mud. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

In  spite  of  his  diminutive  stature,  he  was  handsome  in  appearance.  His 
head  was  massive  and  covered  with  a  magnificent  shock  of  jet  black  hair, 
which  he  tossed  back  when  speaking,  with  a  kingly  gesture.  His  features 
were  large  and  well  proportioned.  His  eyes  were  restless,  nothing  escaped 
their  vigilance  as  they  flitted  from  object  to  object,  and  when  they  fixed 
their  gaze  they  were  piercing.  His  voice  was  superbly  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  outdoor  speaking.  When  on  the  platform,  or  in  the  court  room,  his 
manner  was  bold  and  challenging.  He  never  evaded  a  conflict.  It  was  this 
leonine  attitude,  together  with  his  tremendous  powers  of  speech  and  his 
stunted  height,  that  christened  him  early  in  his  career  as  “The  Little  Giant.” 
— Samuel  P.  Orth  in  “Five  Great  Americans”  (by  permission  of  Burrows 
Brothers.) 


20 


STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS. 

BY  JOSEPH  A.  WALLACE,  ESQ. 

(From  The  State  Register,  Springfield,  Ills.,  April  19,  1885.) 

The  person  of  Mr.  Douglas  has  been  often  described.  He  was  short  and 
thick-set,  being  only  five  feet  one  inch  in  height.  In  his  earlier  life  he  was 
slender,  but  grew  stouter  as  he  grew  older.  His  head  was  one  of  unusual 
size,  and  was  covered  with  a  thick  mass  of  dark  brown  hair,  inclined  to 
curl  and  sprinkled  with  grey.  His  forehead  was  broad  and  full,  rather 
than  high;  his  face  round  and  smoothly  shaven,  and  his  complexion  a  rich 
dark  color.  His  eyes  were  large  and  of  a  darkish  blue,  and  deeply  set  be¬ 
neath  heavy  eyebrows.  His  nose  was  thick  and  pugnacious;  mouth  wide 
and  firmly  set,  and  a  chin  oval  and  dimpled.  He  had  a  short  neck,  square 
shoulders,  disproportionately  short  lower  limbs,  small,  chubby  hands  and 
small  feet.  He  generally  dressed  with  neatness,  though  not  always  in 
good  taste.  The  ensemble  of  his  person  was  such  that  he  could  not  be  taken 
for  the  “glass  of  fashion  or  the  mould  of  form;”  but  when  standing  on  a 
platform,  before  an  audience,  he  loked  like  an  orator  and  a  great  man,  as 
he  really  was.  He  was  well  styled  the  “Little  Giant.” 

In  private  and  social  intercourse,  he  was  a  person  of  the  most  engaging 
address  and  conversation.  Indeed,  his  glittering  success  as  a  politician  was 
due  almost  as  much  to  the  charm  of  his  manners  as  to  the  superiority  of 
his  intellect.  He  captured  the  hearts  of  the  masses,  and  led  them  as  it  were 
spellbound.  “No  one,”  says  Judge  Trumbull,”  ever  gathered  around  more 
devoted  followers,  or  more  enthusiastic  admirers,  who  were  willing  to  do 
and  dare  more  for  another  than  were  his  friends  for  him.” 

As  a  public  speaker  “he  seemed  to  disdain  ornament,  and  marched  right 
on  against  the  body  of  his  subject  with  irresistible  power  and  directness.” 
His  style  was  declamatory,  and  he  always  spoke  under  the  influence  of 
strong  emotion.  His  voice  was  one  of  unusual  compass,  not  musical  nor 
capable  of  a  great  variety  of  inflections,  but  deep  and  full,  and  “swelling 
into  occasional  clarion  blasts  toward  the  close  of  an  important  period.” 
He  made  no  pretensions  to  the  character  of  a  wit,  yet  some  of  his  terse 
sayings  have  the  genuine  Attic  flavor.” 


NASBY’S  DESCRIPTION  OF  LINCOLN. 

The  first  time  I  saw  the  great  and  good  Lincoln  ("alas!  that  “great”  and 
“good”  cannot  be  more  frequently  associated  in  speaking  of  public  men) 
was  at  Quincy,  Ill.,  in  October — I  think  it  was — 1858.  It  was  at  the  close 
of  the  greatest  political  struggle  this  country  ever  witnessed.  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  was  the  acknowledged  champion  of  the  democratic  party,  a  position 
he  had  held  unquestioned  for  years.  He  came  into  his  heritage  of  leader¬ 
ship  at  an  unfortunate  time,  just  when  the  scepter  was  departing  from  the 
organization  which  he  had  headed,  but  he  was  especially  unfortunate  in 
being  pitted  against  the  most  honest  statesman  in  the  opposition,  a  man  upon 
whose  face  the  Creator  had  set  the  assurance  of  absolute,  unselfish  integrity 
— of  one  whose  outward  seeming  was  a  true  index  of  the  inward  man. 
Douglas  was  perhaps  as  honest  as  politicians  usually  are;  he  had  doubtless 
worked  himself  up  to  the  point  of  actually  believing  the  lies  which  he  had 
fashioned  to  subserve  his  own  ends;  but  Lincoln  had  never  so  deceived 
himself.  He  was  absolutely  honest — honest  all  the  way  through — and  in 
face  and  manner  satisfied  all  men  that  he  was  so.  What  might  happen  to 
him  never  influenced  either  his  advocacy  or  opposition  of  any  measure  that 
might  come  before  the  people. 

I  found  Mr.  Lincoln  in  a  room  of  a  hotel,  surrounded  by  admirers,  who 
had  made  the  discovery  that  one  'who  had  previously  been  considered  merely 
a  curious  compound  of  genius  and  simplicity  was  a  really  great  man.  When 
Lincoln  was  put  forward  as  the  antagonist  of  the  hitherto  invincible  Douglas, 
it  was  with  fear  and  trembling,  with  the  expectancy  of  defeat;  but  this 


21 


mature  David  of  the  new  faith  had  met  the  Goliath  of  the  old,  and  had 
practically  slain  him.  He  had  swept  over  the  state  like  a  cyclone — not  a 
raging,  devastating  cyclone,  the  noise  of  which  equaled  its  destructive  power, 
but  a  modest  and  unassuming  force,  which  was  the  more  powerful  because 
the  force  could  not  be  seen.  It  was  the  cause  which  won,  but  in  other 
hands  than  Lincoln’s  it  might  have  failed.  Therefore,  wherever  he  went 
crowds  of .  admiring  men  followed  him,  all  eager  to  worship  at  the  new 
shrine  around  which  such  glories  were  gathering. 

I  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  interview  with  him  after  the  crowd  had  de¬ 
parted,  and  I  esteem  it  something  to  be  proud  of  that  he  seemed  to  take 
a  liking  to  me.  He  talked  to  me  without  reserve.  It  was  many  years  ago, 
but  I  shall  never  forget  it. 

He  sat  in  the  room  with  his  boots  off,  to  relieve  his  very  large  feet  from 
the  pain  occasioned  by  continuous  standing;  or,  to  put  it  in  his  own  words: 
“I  like  to  give  my  feet  a  chance  to  breathe.”  He  had  removed  his  coat  and 

vest,  dropped  one  suspender  from  his  shoulder,  taken  off  his  necktie  and 

collar,  and  thus  comfortably  attired,  or  rather  unattired,  he  sat  tilted  back 
in  one  chair  with  his  feet  upon  another  in  perfect  ease.  He  seemed  to  dis¬ 
like  clothing,  and  in  privacy  wore  as  little  of  it  as  he  could.  I  remember 

the  picture  as  though  I  saw  it  but  yesterday. 

Those  who  accuse  Lincoln  of  frivolity  never  knew  him.  I  never  saw  a 
more  thoughtful  face,  I  never  saw  a  more  dignified  face,  I  never  saw  so 
sad  a  face.  He  had  humor  of  which  he  was  totally  unconscious,  but  it  was 
not  frivolity.  He  said  wonderfully  witty  things,  but  never  from  a  desire 
to  be  witty.  His  wit  was  entirely  illustrative.  He .  used  it  because,  and 
only  because,  at  times  he  could  say  more  in  this  way,  and  better  illustrate 
the  idea  with  which  he  was  pregnant.  He  never  cared  how  he  made  a 
point  so  that  he  made  it,  and  he  never  told  a  story  for  the  mere  sake  of 
telling  a  story.  When  he  did  it,  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  and 
making  clear  a  point.  He  was  essentially  epigrammatic  and  parabolic.  He 
was  a  master  of  satire,  which  was  at  times  as  blunt  as  a  meat-ax,  and  at 
others  as  keen  as  a  razor;  but  it  was  always  kindly  except  when  some 
horrible  injustice  was  its  inspiration,  and  then  it  was  terrible.  Weakness 
he  was  never  ferocious  with,  but  intentional  wickedness  he  never  spared.- — 
David  B.  Locke  (“Petroleum  V.  Nasby”)  in  Reminiscences  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  (by  permission  of  North  American  Pub.  Co.) 

•  '  v!  Vff 


CASSIUS  M.  CLAY  ON  LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS. 

His  debate  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas  not  only  showed  great  ability,  but  a 
liberal  tendency.  And  though  Douglas  was  the  first  popular  speaker  of 
his  day,  Lincoln  won  on  the  convictions  of  the  people;  so  that,  although 
Douglas  was  chosen  the  senator  of  Illinois,  the  debate,  as  taken  down  by 
stenographers,  was  published  by  the  Whigs,  and  widely  distributed  as  a 
campaign  document.  This  brought  Lincoln  prominently  before  the  nation 
as  the  liberal  candidate.  He  was  invited  to  speak  in  New  York  by  the 
young  Whigs  and  Liberals,  and  I  met  him  again  for  the  second  time,  and 
had  on  the  cars  a  long  talk  with  him  on  my  favorite  policy.  Lincoln  as 
usual  was  a  good  listener;  and  when  I  had  accumulated  all  my  arguments 
in  favor  of  liberation  he  said:  “Clay,  I  always  thought  that  the  man  who 
made  the  corn  should  eat  the  corn.”  This  homely  illustration  of  his  senti¬ 
ments  has  lingered  ever  in  my  memory  as  one  of  the  most  eminent  argu¬ 
ments  against  slavery. — Cassius  M.  Clay  in  Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lin¬ 
coln  (by  permission  of  North  American  Publishing  Co.) 


22 


THE  CONTRAST  BETWEEN  LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS. 

BY  GEN.  JAMES  B.  FBY. 

Lincoln  and  his  Illinois  competitor,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  formed  a  striking 
contrast.  Douglas  was  low  in  stature,  rotund  in  figure,  with  a  short  neck, 
a  big  bullet  head,  and  a  chubby  face.  His  lips  were  forced  into  the  fixed 
smile  characteristic  of  the  popular  and  well-satisfied  public  man  of  a  period 
when  political  success  depended  largely  upon  what  a  man  said,  how  he  said 
it,  and  how  he  appeared  in  personal  intercourse  with  the  people;  and  not, 
as  now,  much  upon  what  newspapers  say  of  him  and  for  him. 

Lincoln  was  tall  and  thin;  his  long  bones  were  united  by  large  joints, 
and  he  had  a  long  neck  and  an  angular  face  and  head.  Many  likenesses 
represent  his  face  well  enough,  but  none  that  I  have  ever  seen  do  justice 
to  the  awkwardness  and  ungainliness  of  his  figure.  His  feet,  hanging 
loosely  to  his  ankles,  were  prominent  objects;  but  his  hands  were  more 
conspicuous  even  than  his  feet — due  perhaps  to  the  fact  that  ceremony  at 
times  compelled  him  to  clothe  them  in  white  kid  gloves,  which  always  fitted 
loosely.  Both  in  the  height  of  conversation  and  in  the  depth  of  reflection 
his  hand  now  and  then  ran  over  or  supported  his  head,  giving  his  hair 
habitually  a  disordered  aspect.  I  never  saw  him  when  he  appeared  to 
me  otherwise  than  a  great  man,  and  a  very  ugly  one.  His  expression  in 
repose  was  sad  and  dull;  but  with  ever-recurring  humor,  at  short  intervals, 
flashed  forth  with  the  brilliancy  of  an  electric  light.  I  observed  but  two 
well-defined  expressions  in  his  countenance;  one,  that  of  a  pure,  thoughtful, 
honest  man,  absorbed  by  a  sense  of  duty  and  responsibility;  the  other,  that 
of  a  humorist  so  full  of  fun  that  he  could  not  keep  it  all  in.  His  power  of 
analysis  was  wonderful.  He  strengthened  every  case  he  stated,  and  no 
anecdote  or  joke  ever  lost  force  or  effect  from  his  telling.  He  invariably 
carried  the  listener  with  him  to  the  very  climax,  and  when  that  was  reached 
in  relating  a  humorous  story,  he  laughed  all  over.  His  large  mouth  assumed 
an  unexpected  and  comical  shape,  the  skin  on  his  nose  gathered  into  wrinkles, 
and  his  small  eyes,  though  partly  closed,  emitted  infectious  rays  of  fun.  It 
was  not  only  the  aptness  of  his  stories,  but  his  way  of  telling  them,  and 
his  own  unfeigned  enjoyment,  that  gave  them  zest,  even  among  the  gravest 
men  and  upon  the  most  serious  occasions. — Gen.  James  B.  Fry  in  Re¬ 
miniscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  (permission  of  the  North  American  Pub¬ 
lishing  Co.) 


DOUGLAS  AND  LINCOLN. 

BY  STEPHEN  B.  WARDEN. 

Here  are  two  men,  of  whom  one  is  great  and  both  are  true  as  well  as 
able.  Lincoln  represents,  not  greatly,  but  with  marked  ability,  the  least 
objectionable  form  of  republicanism.  Douglas  represents,  and  greatly,  the 
most  patriotic  form  of  democracy.  Lincoln  magnifies  the  interests  of  keep¬ 
ing  territories  now  free  in  that  condition,  slightly  estimating,  or  forgetting 
to  preserve  intact,  the  principle  without  which  freedom  in  the  territories 
or  elsewhere  would  be  a  sheer  impossibility.  Douglas  magnifying  nothing, 
nor  depreciating  aught  devotes  himself  to  the  elucidation  and  the  preserva¬ 
tion  of  the  principle  on  which  all  real  republican  or  democratic  interests 
must  always  be  dependent. — Warden  Stephen  B.  A  voter’s  version  of  the 
life  and  character  of  Stephen  Arnold  Douglas.  (Columbus,  Ohio,  1860.) 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES. 

BY  ALONZO  ROTHSCHILD. 

The  political  careers  of  these  two  men  started  at  about  the  same  time  and 
place.  When  Lincoln  entered  upon  his  first  term  in  the  Illinois  Assembly 
at  Vandalia,  he  met  in  the  lobby  a  shrewd  little  Vermonter,  four  years  his 


23 


junior,  who,  notwithstanding  extreme  youth  and  briefness  of  residence  in 
the  West,  was  conducting  among  the  members  of  the  legislature  what  proved 
to  be  a  successful  canvass  for  the  office  of  state’s  attorney  for  the  first 
judicial  district.  The  newcomer  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Identifying  him¬ 
self  with  the  dominant  party,  he  became  as  pronounced  in  his  democracy 
as  Lincoln  was  in  his  Whiggism.  On  opposite  sides  of  the  next  assembly, — 
both  of  them  were  elected  to  the  legislature  of  1836, — they  clashed,  from 
time  to  time,  in  tactics  and  debate.  The  antagonism  thus  started  in  Vandalia 
was  transferred  the  following  year  to  Springfield,  where  within  a  few  months 
of  each  other,  the  young  men  took  up  their  residence.  Here  differences  in 
character  and  temperament  rather  than  in  party  affiliations,  acted  as  a  bar 
to  the  friendship,  or  even  to  the  esteem,  that  is  not  uncommon  between  con¬ 
tending  politicians.  If  Douglas  took  one  side  of  a  question,  Lincoln  might 
safely  be  looked  for  on  the  other;  and  their  rivalry  soon  became  a  recognized 

factor  in  the  spirited  local  contests  of  the  day. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

The  Lincoln-Douglas  debates,  as  they  are  called,  were  the  most  remarkable 
exhibitions  of  their  kind  in  the  history  of  the  country.  Never  before  nor 
since  have  two  of  its  citizens  engaged  in  a  series  of  public  discussions  which 
involved  questions  of  equal  importance.  Personal  and  purely  local  differ¬ 
ences  were  overshadowed,  from  the  very  beginning,  by  what  the  disputants 
had  to  say  on  issues  so  momentous  that  they  were  destined,  within  a  few 
years,  to  plunge  the  country  into  civil  war.  Lincoln,  accordingly,  did  not 
greatly  exaggerate  when  he  spoke,  at  Quincy,  of  the  seven  meetings  as  “the 
successive  acts  of  a  drama  to  be  enacted  not  merely  in  the  face  of  audiences 
like  this,  but  in  the  face  of  the  nation  and  ,to  some  extent,  in  the  face  of 
the  world.”  To  reconstruct  these  stirring  scenes,  in  pen  pictures,  almost 
half  a  century  after  the  curtain  was  rung  down,  is  as  much  beyond  our 
power  as  to  do  justice  by  the  actors,  in  any  summary  of  their  speeches. 
Only  a  careful  reading  of  the  263  pages  in  which  the  debates  have  been 
preserved  will  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  how  brilliantly,  from  the  intel¬ 
lectual  point  of  view,  both  conducted  themselves.  Now  Douglas  appears  to 
prevail,  now  Lincoln.  One  page  persuades  us  that  slavery  is  constitutional, 
and  that  each  commonwealth  should  be  allowed  to  have  “the  institution,” 
or  not,  as  it  elects.  We  turn  the  leaf,  and  lo!  we  are  convinced  that  slavery 
is  wrong,  and  ought,  at  least,  to  be  restricted.  The  questions  at  issue  in 
the  debates,  however, — their  morals  and  their  politics, — lie  beyond  the  scope 
of  our  present  inquiry. — Rothschild ,  Alonzo.  Lincoln ,  Master  of  Men.  (By 
permission  of  Houghton ,  Mifflin  &  Co.) 


THE  GREAT  DEBATE. 

BY  SAMUEL  P.  ORTH. 

Abraham  Lincoln  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas  were  old  time  rivals.  They 
had  been  admitted  to  the  bar  together,  they  had  competed  for  political  favor 
in  the  same  communities,  they  had  practiced  law  in  the  same  courts  on  the 
same  circuits,  they  had  been  rivals  for  the  hand  of  the  same  maiden,  and 
had  been  opponents  in  every  political  struggle  since  the  days  of  Jackson. 
Douglas  had  become  famous,  Lincoln  had  remained  obscure;  Douglas  was  the 
leader  of  a  great  national  party,  Lincoln  was  the  local  organizer  of  a  new 
and  untried  party;  Douglas  was  the  proud  creator  of  the  policy  of  popular 
sovereignty,  not  caring  “whether  the  people  voted  slavery  up  or  voted  it 
down,”  Lincoln  was  the  humble  commentator  on  the  text  of  the  great  declar- 
tion  that  “all  men  are  created  free  and  equal.” 

Now  these  rivals  met  in  a  contest  that  was  destined  to  become  one  of  the 
great  and  glorious  events  in  our  national  history.  It  was  not  a  rivalry  of 
persons  but  of  principles.  Compromise  and  conviction  met  upon  the  same 
platform  and  struggled  for  the  mastery.  All  semblance  of  a  local  contest 
immediately  vanished,  and  the  eyes  of  the  nation  were  upon  the  rivals;  their 
every  word  was  caught  up  by  eager  ears,  and  every  paper  detailed  their 
speech  and  action.  Illinois  became  the  political  and  moral  battleground  of  all 
the  land. 


The  rivals  were  opposites,  not  alone  in  political  convictions,  but  in  methods, 
in  physiognomy,  in  mental  trait  and  in  moral  conceptions.  Providence  des¬ 
tined  each  to  be  the  perfect  embodiment  of  a  principle,  and  nature  had  pre¬ 
pared  each  man  for  his  ideal.  Douglas,  undersized,  well  knit  and  erect,  his 
handsome  head  well  poised,  graceful  of  gesture  and  lordly  of  mein;  Lin: 
coin,  tall,  gaunt,  losely  put  together,  awkward,  called  himself  “the  homliest 
man  in  Illinois.”  Douglas  magnetic  beyond  resistance,  prepossessing,  good- 
natured,  impulsive;  Lincoln  humble,  straightforward,  retiring,  uncomplain¬ 
ing.  Douglas  a  master  of  sophistry  and  fallacy,  resorting  to  tricks  and 
illusions,  doing  everything  to  win;  Lincoln  utterly  incapable  of  deception, 
and  so  permeated  with  the  truth  that  he  feared  misrepresentation  more  than 
defeat.  Douglas  in  speech  utterly  destitute  of  wit,  or  of  figure,  he  never 
quoted;  neither  did  he  hesitate,  but  his  volubility  was  as  unfailing  as  the 
rushing  waters  of  a  mountain  torrent.  His  mastery  over  the  audience  was 
due  to  this  irresistible  onrush  of  words,  and  to  his  power  to  hide  the  real 
issue,  to  magnify  small  points  into  the  ludicrous,  to  create  whole  platoons  of 
straw  men  out  of  mere  phrases  from  his  opponents’  speech,  and  then  pro¬ 
ceed  to  demolish  them,  with  stupendous  gusto,  to  the  huge  delight  of  his 
hearers.  Douglas  was  superficial.  He  never  fathomed  the  meaning  of  the 
Dred  Scott  decision;  he  was  artificial,  he  never  thought  through  the  history  of 
our  country.  What  a  contrast  to  Lincoln,  who  was  nothing  if  not  genuine, 
who  was  so  profound,  that  his  speeches  will  remain  a  perennial  well-spring  of 
civic  and  moral  wisdom:  And  in  speech,  what  a  contrast!  Lincoln  was 

slow;  his  words  were  all  carefully  measured  before  they  were  spoken.  He 

possessed  the  humor  of  Aesop,  the  wisdom  of  Franklin,  the  imagery  of  Burns, 
the  diction  of  Emerson,  the  learning  of  Bacon,  the  morality  of  Paul.  Douglas 
voluble,  deceptive,  onrushing;  Lincoln  logical,  truthful,  deliberative.  These 
rivals,  opposite  in  temperament  and  in  method  and  in  purpose,  met  in  the 
arena  of  debate  and  crystallized  the  political  sentiment  of  the  Union. 

******* 

If  these  rivals  could  appear  in  joint  discussion,  Douglas  would  have  to 
meet  Lincoln  upon  an  equality.  His  silent  contempt  and  assumed  superior¬ 
ity  would  be  neutralized  and  his  language  tempered  by  the  presence  of  Lin¬ 
coln.  Douglas  agreed  to  the  debate.  Seven  meetings  were  arranged  for,  in 
as  many  towns,  each  speaker  alternately  to  open  and  close,  the  opening 

speech  to  occupy  an  hour,  the  reply  one  hour  and  a  half,  the  rejoinder  one 

half  hour.  Douglas  chose  to  open  four  debates,  leaving  Lincoln  only  three, 
but  he  submitted  to  this  inequality  with  his  usual  good  nature. 

Seven  Illinois  towns  were  made  historic  by  these  meetings.  Not  one 
external  circumstance  that  could  add  significance  to  these  occasions  was 
wanting.  For  thirty  miles  around,  the  country  emptied  itself  into  each 
town.  The  multitudes  came  on  foot,  in  wagons,  by  the  train  load.  They 
camped  in  the  open  fields  to  await  the  great  day.  They  marched,  they  sang, 
tney  drank  and  made  merry.  Bands,  torches,  fireworks  and  banners  made 
bizarre  these  encounters  of  the  giants.  The  multitudes  came  in  glee,  they 
departed  in  silence;  they  gathered  in  jubilant  excitement,  they  returned  to 
fneir  homes  in  sober  thought;  for  Lincoln  lived  up  to  his  simple  purpose, 
“I  want  to  convince  the  people.”  Douglas  captivated  the  people,  Lincoln 
sobered  them.  Douglas  persisted  in  amplifying  the  ostensible  assumptions 
of  Lincoln;  the  answer  was  invariably  the  simple,  convincing  logic.  Doug¬ 
las’s  speeches  were  turgid  with  misleading  insinuations;  Lincoln’s  answers 
were  pregnant  with  prophecy. 

The  campaign  of  enthusiasm  closed  with  a  mammoth  rally,  held  in  Chicago 
the  night  before  election.  Through  rain  and  mud,  the  republicans  marched 
in  an  enormous  torchlight  parade,  so  popular  in  those  days;  while  the  dem¬ 
ocrats  gathered  in  a  half  dozen  large  meetings,  where  they  awaited  patiently 
in  the  rain,  the  arrival  of  Douglas,  who  addressed  each  meeting.  Douglas 
had  made  a  fortune  in  Chicago  real  estate,  and  his  campaign  cost  him  forty 
thousand  dollars.  Lincoln,  out  of  his  poverty,  could  give  little  more  than  his 
personal  expenses.  He  confided  to  a  friend  that  the  campaign  had  cost  him 
“nigh  unto  five  hundred  dollars.” — Orth ,  Samuel  P.,  Five  American  Politi¬ 
cians.  (By  permission  of  Burrow  Bros.,  Cleveland ,  Ohio.) 


BIRTHPLACE  OP  STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS. 


25 

AS  AN  EASTERN  NEWSPAPER  REPORTER  SAW  THEM. 

A  writer  for  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  who  was  present  at  the  Ottawa 
debate  and  who  listened  for  the  first  time  to  the  two  champions,  gives  his  im¬ 
pression  of  them  in  the  following  manner: 

Douglas  and  Lincoln. 

Two  men  presenting  wider  contrasts  could  hardly  he  found  as  the  repre¬ 
sentatives  of  the  two  great  parties.  Everybody  knows  Douglas,  a  short,  thick¬ 
set  burly  man,  with  large  round  head,  heavy  hair,  dark  complexion,  and  fierce 
bull-dog  look.  Strong  in  his  own  real  power,  and  skilled  by  a  thousand  con¬ 
flicts  in  all  the  strategy  of  a  hand  to  hand  or  a  general  fight;  of  towering  am¬ 
bition,  restless  in  his  determined  desire  for  noteriety;  proud,  defiant,  ar¬ 
rogant,  audacious,  unscrupulous,  “Little  Dug,”  ascended  the  platform  and 
looked  out  impudently  and  carelessly  on  the  immense  throng  which  surged 
and  struggled  before  him.  A  native  of  Vermont,  reared  on  a  soil  where  no 
slaves  stood,  came  to  Illinois  as  a  teacher,  and  from  one  post  to  another  had 
risen  to  his  present  eminence.  Forgetful  of  the  ancestral  hatred  of  slavery 
to  which  he  was  the  heir,  he  had  come  to  be  a  holder  of  slaves  and  to  owe 
much  of  his  fame  to  his  continued  subservience  to  southern  influence. 

The  other — Lincoln — is  a  native  of  Kentucky,  of  poor  white  parentage: 
and  from  his  cradle  has  felt  the  blighting  influence  of  the  poor  and  cruel 
shadow  which  rendered  labor  dishonorable,  and  kept  the  poor  in  poverty, 
while  it  advanced  the  rich  in  their  possessions.  Reared  in  poverty  and  to  the 
humblest  aspirations,  he  left  his  native  State,  crossed  the  line  into  Illinois 
and  began  his  career  of  honorable  toil.  At  first  a  laborer,  splitting  rails 
for  a  living — deficient  in  education,  and  applying  himself  even  to  the  rudi¬ 
ments  of  knowledge;  he,  too,  felt  the  expanding  power  of  his  American 
manhood,  and  began  to  achieve  the  greatness  to  which  he  has  succeeded. 
With  great  difficulty,  struggling  through  the  tedious  formalities  of  legal 
lore,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  rapidly  made  his  way  to  the  front  rank 
of  his  profession. 

Honored  by  the  people  with  office,  he  is  still  the  same  honest  and  reliable 
man.  He  volunteered  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  did  the  State  good  service 
in  its  sorest  need.  In  every  relation  of  life,  socially  and  to  the  State,  Mr. 
Lincoln  has  been  always  the  pure  and  honest  man.  In  physique  he  is  the 
opposite  to  Douglas.  Built  on  the  Kentucky  type,  he  is  very  tall,  slender 
and  angular,  awkward  even,  in  gait  and  attitude.  His  face  is  sharp,  large- 
featured  and  unprepossessing.  His  eyes  are  deep  set,  under  heavy  brows; 
his  forehead  is  high  and  retreating,  and  his  hair  is  dark  and  heavy.  In 
repose,  I  must  confess  that  “Long  Abe’s”  appearance  is  not  comely.  But 
stir  him  up  and  the  fire  of  his  genius  plays  on  every  feature.  His  eye  glows 
and  sparkles,  every  lineament  now  so  ill-formed,  grows  brilliant  and  ex¬ 
pressive,  and  you  have  before  you  a  man  of  rare  power  and  of  strong  mag¬ 
netic  influence.  He  takes  the  people  every  time,  and  there  is  no  getting 
away  from  his  sturdy  good  sense,  his  unaffected  sincerity,  and  the  unceasing 
play  of  his  good  humor,  which  accompanies  his  close  logic  and  smooths 
the  way  to  conviction — New  York  Evening  Post.  Aug.  27,  1858. 

(Is  this  writer  in  error  in  any  historical  fact?  Does  he  seem  to  try  to  be 
fair  and  impartial?  Apply  the  test  to  other  writers.) 


HOW  DOUGLAS  TRAVELED  DURING  THE  CAMPAIGN. 

Labors  of  Senator  Douglas — A  western  correspondent  gives  a  detailed 
statistical  account  of  the  labors  of  Senator  Douglas  in  the  recent  canvass  of 
Illinois,  from  which  it  appears  that  they  were  almost  equal  to  the  labors  of 
Hercules.  It  seems  that  he  has  addressed  his  constituents  in  57  counties. 
He  met  Mr.  Lincoln  in  debate  once  in  each  congressional  district;  made  59 
set  speeches  of  from  two  to  three  hours  in  length;  17  speeches  of  from 


* 


26 


twenty  to  forty-five  minutes  in  length,  in  response  to  the  serenades;  and  30 
speeches  of  about  equal  length,  in  reply  to  addresses  of  welcome.  Of  these 
speeches,  all  but  two  were  made  in  the  open  air,  and  seven  speeches  were 
made  or  continued  during  heavy  rains.  To  do  this,  Mr.  Douglas  crossed,  from 
end  to  end,  every  railroad  line  in  the  State,  excepting  three,  besides  making 
long  journeys  by  means  of  horse  conveyance  and  steamboats;  the  road 
travel  amounted  to  more  than  5,227  miles.  By  boat  he  made  almost  the 
entire  western  side  of  the  State,  and  all  that  portion  of  the  Illinois  river 
which  is  navigable  by  steamboats. — New  York  Times,  185S. 


AS  DOUGLAS  APPEARED  AFTER  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  DEBATES. 

“As  the  great,  though  little,  Douglas  was  stopping  at  the  Tremont  house, 
Chicago,  only  a  few  persons  had  the  supreme  honor  of  joining  hands  with  the 
“favorite  son,”  and  your  correspondent  was  among  the  number.  He  ap¬ 
peared  in  good  health,  quitely  smoking  a  weed,  and  occasionally  indulging 
in  a  chat  with  any  one  and  every  one  who  chose  to  converse  with  him.  Per¬ 
haps  you  have  never  seen  him;  well,  S.  A.  Douglas  is  a  man  standing  five  feet 
two  or  three,  with  a  head  big  enough  for  six  feet  two,  and  a  forehead  prom¬ 
inent  and  intellectual  enough  for  any  man  of  any  nation.  His  hair,  which 
was  brown,  is  thick  and  gray;  his  eye  cool  and  gray;  his  nose  not  prominent, 
but  striking;  his  mouth  large  and  firm.  His  whole  face  is  round,  and  seems 
too  large  even  for  such  broad  shoulders  to  support  it.  Small  as  he  is,  you 
would  choose  him  out  of  a  crowd  for  a  splendid  model  of  intellectual  culti¬ 
vation.  He  is  small  only  in  body — his  head  is  a  miracle  of  mind.” — Chicago 
correspondence  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  Democrat,  Nov.  23,  1853. 


SELECTIONS  FROM  THE  DEBATES. 

(condensed.) 

Lincoln  on  Slavery — “I  suppose  the  real  difference  between  Judge  Doug¬ 
las  and  his  friends  and  the  Republicans  is  that  the  judge  is  not  in  favor  of 
making  any  difference  between  slavery  and  liberty.  Everything  that  emanates 
from  him  or  his  coadjutors  in  their  course  or  policy  carefully  excludes  the 
thought  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in  slavery.  If  you  will  take  the 
Judge’s  speeches  and  select  the  short  and  pointed  sentences  expressed  by 
him — such  as  his  declaration  that  he  don’t  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  up 
or  down,  you  will  see  at  once  that  this  is  perfectly  logical.  Judge  Douglas 
declares  that  if  any  community  wants  slavery  they  have  a  right  to  have  it. 
He  can  say  that  logically,  if  he  says  that  there  is  no  -wrong  in  slavery;  but 
if  you  admit  that  there  is  a  wrong  in  it,  he  cannot  logically  say  that  anybody 
has  a  right  to  do  wrong.” 

Douglas  on  Slavery — “Mr.  Lincoln  says  he  looks  forward  to  a  time  when 
slavery  shall  be  abolished  everywhere.  I  look  forward  to  a  time  when  each 
state  shall  be  allowed  to  do  as  it  pleases.  If  it  chooses  to  keep  slavery  for¬ 
ever,  is  not  my  business,  but  its  own;  if  it  chooses  to  abolish  slavery,  it  is 
its  own  business,  not  mine.  I  care  more  for  the  principle  of  just  government, 
the  right  of  the  people  to  rule,  than  I  do  for  all  the  negroes  in  Christendom. 
I  would  not  endanger  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union,  I  would  not  blot  out  the 
inalienable  rights  of  the  white  man  for  all  the  negroes  that  ever  existed.” 

Lincoln  on  the  Menace  of  Slavery — “We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year 
since  a  policy  was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object  and  the  confident  promise 
of  putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  that  policy, 
that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly  augmented.  In 
my  opinion  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached  and 
passed.  ‘A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.’  I  believe  this  govern¬ 
ment  cannot  endure  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to 
be  dissolved;  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall;  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease 


27 


to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  op¬ 
ponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the 
public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinc¬ 
tion,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  until  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in 
all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new,  north  as  well  as  south.” 

Douglas  on  Lincoln’s  Sectionalism — “His  first  and  main  proposition  I  will 
give  in  his  own  language,  scriptural  quotations  and  all:  ‘A  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand.’  In  other  words,  Mr.  Lincoln  asserts  as  a  fund¬ 
amental  principle  of  this  government  that  there  must  be  uniformity  in  the 
local  laws  and  domestic  institutions  of  each  and  all  the  States  in  the  Union; 
and  he  therefore  invites  all  the  non-slaveholding  States  to  band  together, 
organize  as  one  body  and  make  war  upon  slavery  in  Kentucky,  upon  slavery 
in  Virginia,  upon  the  Carolinas,  upon  slavery  in  all  the  slaveholding  states  in 
this  Union,  and  to  persevere  in  that  war  until  it  is  exterminated.  He  then 
notifies  the  slave-holding  states  to  stand  together  as  a  unit  and  make  an  ag¬ 
gressive  war  on  the  free  states  of  this  Union  with  a  view  of  establishing 
slavery  in  them  all. 

Lincoln  on  the  Dred  Scott  Decision — “The  several  points  of  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  in  connection  with  Senator  Douglas’s  ‘care  not’  policy,  constitute  the 
piece  of  machinery  in  its  present  state  of  advancement.  The  working  points 
of  that  machinery  are: 

Firstly — That  no  negro  slave  and  no  descendant  of  a  slave  can  ever  be  a 
citizen  of  any  state.  This  point  is  made  in  order  to  deprive  the  negro  of  the 
benefit  of  that  provision  in  the  constitution  which  declares  that  “the  citizens 
of  each  state  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens 
of  the  several  states.” 

Secondly — That  neither  Congress  nor  a  territorial  legislature  can  exclude 
slavery  from  any  United  States  territory.  This  point  is  made  that  in¬ 
dividual  men  may  fill  up  a  territory  with  slaves,  without  danger  of  losing 
them  as  property  and  thus  enhance  the  chances  of  permanency  to  the  institu¬ 
tion  through  all  the  future. 

Thirdly — That  whether  the  holding  a  negro  in  actual  slavery  in  a  free 
state  makes  him  free,  the  United  States  will  not  decide,  but  will  leave  to  be 
decided  by  the  courts  of  any  slave  state  the  negro  may  be  forced  into  by  his 
master. 

Put  this  and  that  together  and  we  have  another  nice  little  niche,  which 
we  may  ere  long  see  filled  with  another  Supreme  Court  decision  declaring 
that  the  constitution  does  not  permit  a  state  to  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits. 

Douglas  on  the  Dred  Scott  Decision — “The  decision  of  the  highest  tribunal 
known  to  the  Constitution  of  the  country  must  be  final  until  it  has  been  re¬ 
versed  by  an  equally  high  authority.  Hence,  I  am  opposed  to  this  doctrine 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  by  which  he  proposes  to  take  an  appeal  from  the  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court  upon  this  high  constitutional  question  to  a  republican 
caucas  sitting  in  the  country.  Yes,  or  any  other  caucus  or  town  meeting 
whether  it  be  republican,  American  or  democratic.  I  respect  the  decisions 
of  that  august  tribunal.  I  am  a  law-abiding  man. 

I  am  free  to  say  to  you  that  in  my  opinion  this  government  of  ours  was 
founded  on  a  white  basis.  It  was  made  by  the  white  man,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  white  man,  to  be  administered  by  the  white  man  as  they  should  deter¬ 
mine.  I  do  not  acknowledge  that  the  states  must  all  be  free  or  must  be  all 
slave.  I  do  not  acknowledge  that  the  negro  must  have  civil  and  political 
rights  everywhere  or  nowhere.  He  objects  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision  be¬ 
cause  it  does  not  put  the  negro  in  possession  of  the  rights  of  citizenship  on 
an  equality  with  the  white  man.  I  am  opposed  to  negro  equality.  I  am  in 
favor  of  preserving  not  only  the  purity  of  the  blood  but  the  purity  of  the 
government  from  any  mixture  or  amalgation  with  inferior  races.” 

Lincoln  on  Douglas. — “Senator  Douglas  is  of  world-wide  renown.  All  the 
anxious  politicians  of  his  party,  have  been  looking  upon  him  as  certainly, 
at  no  distant  day,  to  be  the  president  of  the  United  States.  They  have  seen 
in  his  round,  jolly,  fruitful  face,  post-offices,  land-offices,  marshalships,  and 
cabinet  appointments,  chargeships  and  foreign  missions,  bursting  and  sprout¬ 
ing  out  in  wonderful  exuberance,  ready  to  be  laid  hold  of  by  their  greedy 


28 


hands.  With  greedy  anxiety  they  rush  about  him,  sustain  him,  and  give 
him  marches,  triumphal  entries,  and  receptions  beyond  what  even  in  the 
days  of  his  highest  prosperity  they  could  have  brought  about  in  his  favor. 
On  the  contrary,  nobody  ever  expected  me  to  be  president.  In  my  poor, 
lean,  lank  face,  nobody  has  ever  seen  that  any  cabbages  were  sprouting  out. 
These  are  advantages  under  which  the  Republicans  labor.  I  was  made 
the  standard-bearer  merely  because  there  had  to  be  some  one  so  placed — I 
being  in  no  wise  preferable  to  any  other  of  the  twenty-five,  perhaps  a  hun¬ 
dred,  we  have  in  the  Republican  ranks.” 

Douglas  on  Lincoln. — “In  the  remarks  I  have  made  on  this  platform  and 
the  position  of  Mr.  Lincoln  upon  it,  I  mean  nothing  personally  disrespectful 
or  unkind  to  that  gentleman.  I  have  known  him  for  nearly  twenty-five 
years.  There  were  many  points  of  sympathy  between  us  when  we  first  got 
acquainted.  We  were  both  comparatively  poor  boys,  and  both  struggling  with 
poverty  in  a  strange  land.  I  was  a  school-teacher  in  the  town  of  Winchester, 
and  he  was  a  flourishing  grocery-keeper  in  the  town  of  Salem.  He  was  more 
successful  in  his  occupation  than  I  was  in  mine,  and  hence  more  fortunate 
in  this  world’s  goods.  Lincoln  is  one  of  these  peculiar  men  who  perform 
with  admirable  skill  everything  they  undertake.  I  made  as  good  a  school¬ 
teacher  as  I  could  and  when  a  cabinet-maker  I  made  a  good  bedstead  and 
tables  although  my  old  boss  said  I  succeeded  better  with  bureaus  and  secre¬ 
taries  than  with  anything  else;  but  I  believe  that  Lincoln  was  always  more 
successful  in  business  than  I,  for  his  business  enabled  him  to  get  into  the 
legislature.  I  met  him  there,  however,  and  had  a  sympathy  with  him,  be¬ 
cause  of  the  up-hill  struggle  we  both  had  in  life.  He  was  then  just  as  good 
at  telling  an  anecdote  as  now.  He  could  beat  any  of  the  boys  wrestling,  or 
running  a  foot-race,  in  pitching  quoits  or  tossing  a  copper;  and  the  dignity 
and  impartiality  with  which  he  presided  at  a  horse-race  or  fist-fight  excited 
the  admiration  and  won  the  praise  of  everybody  that  was  present  and  par¬ 
ticipated.  I  sympathized  with  him  because  he  was  struggling  with  difficul¬ 
ties  and  so  was  I.” 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  AT  FREEPORT, 

A  Dialogue  foe  Boys. 

Characters:  Abraham  Lincoln,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  two  moderators,  three 
reporters,  and  five  or  six  political  friends  of  each  candidate. 

Scene — The  stage  should  be  set  to  represent  an  outdoor  platform,  with  a 
plain  uncovered  table  and  with  chairs  as  indicated  in  the  diagram  below. 
On  the  table,  should  be  a  pitcher  of  water  and  a  glass,  with  two  or  three 
sheep-bound  books.  Two  small  tables  for  the  reporters  should  be  placed  on 
the  side  of  the  stage  furthest  from  the  entrance.  If  desired  a  banner  may 
be  shown  with  the  inscription  “ Stephenson  is  for  Old  Abe ”  and  another 
“hurrah  for  the  Little  Giant.”  Also,  if  desired,  the  characters  may  march 
on  the  stage  in  procession  with  fife  and  drums  ahead,  Douglas  and  Lincoln 
marching  behind  the  moderators,  the  shouters  for  each  following  with  cheers, 
and  two  of  the  reporters  coming  last.  The  third  reporter  remains  outside 
until  called  for. 

STAGE  SETTING. 

Audience. 

Reporters 
*  *  * 

Table 

Douglas 
* 

Moderators 
*  * 

Douglas  shouters  Lincoln  shouters 

******  ****** 


Lincoln 

* 


29 


Cheers  for  each  candidate  should  be  given  freely,  with  tossing  of  hats 
and  waving  of  banners,  before  the  beginning  of  each  speech  as  well  as  after 
each  speech.  This  should  continue  while  candidates  and  moderators  are 
taking  their  places,  and  subside  only  when  the  moderator  has  rapped  sharply 
for  order.  The  reporters  cross  to  their  tables  and  take  notes  constantly 
during  the  speaking,  looking  up  only  when  interruptions  come. 

Republican  Moderator  (Hon.  Thos.  J.  Turner) :  “Ladies  and  Gentlemen — ” 

[ The  shouters  have  not  yet  taken  their  seats  but  are  arguing  with  each 
other  in  the  background.  Now  they  cry,  “Order!  Silence!”  and  gradually 
take  seats  in  their  respective  sides.  The  moderator  waits  until  they  are 
silent.'] 

Moderator:  “Ladies  and  Gentlemen.  If  the  committee  in  charge  of  the 
arrangements  for  this  memorable  occasion  could  have  been  consulted,  they 
would  have  planned  better  weather  than  greets  us  here  today.  But  although 
the  skies  are  lowering  and  the  rain  occasionally  threatening,  I  hope  we 
shall  all  be  patient  and  as  comfortable  as  possible  in  this  grove  and  listen 
to  the  eminent  gentlemen  who  are  to  address  us  today.  As  the  great  crowds 
came  in  this  forenoon  in  wagons  and  on  special  trains  of  as  many  as  sixteen 
cars,  and  as  I  saw  the  long  processions  which  escorted  these  two  candidates 
to  this  grove,  I  asked  myself,  ‘Under  what  other  government  would  such  a 
spectacle  be  seen?  In  what  other  part  of  this  great  country  would  these 
thousands  of  people  leave  their  work  in  the  midst  of  the  busy  season  and 
travel  miles  and  miles  to  hear  discussed  the  political  issues  of  the  day?’ 
Why?  Because  this  is  a  most  momentous  campaign.  It  will  be  regarded 
in  history  as  a  canvass  unequalled  in  the  election  of  United  States  senators. 
These  two  men  represent  the  great  contest  now  being  waged  among  thought¬ 
ful  men  of  the  republic  and  there  is  much  more  at  stake  than  the  election 
of  either  man  to  the  senate.  According  to  the  agreement  made  in  writing 
between  Mr.  Douglas  and  Mr.  Lincoln  before  these  debates  began,  each  is 
alternately  to  open  the  debate  in  a  speech  of  one  hour.  The  other  is  to 
have  an  hour  and  a  half  in  which  to  make  a  reply.  The  first  speaker  is 
then  to  be  allowed  half  an  hour  in  which  to  close  the  debate.  The  first  of 
the  series  was  held  at  Ottawa,  in  the  Third  Congressional  District  last 
Saturday.  Today  they  are  to  have  the  second  of  the  seven  fixed  debates 
in  this,  the  First  Congressional  District.  I  ask  'that  each  side  give  the 
other  a  fair  hearing  and.  that  the  best  of  order  be  preserved  in  this  vast 
crowd.  Mr.  Douglas  had  the  opening  speech  at  Ottawa.  Mr.  Lincoln  has 
it  today  and  it  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  introduce  to  the  republicans  of 
northern  Illinois  the  champion  of  their  principles  and  their  candidate  for 
the  United  States  Senate — the  Honorable  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Springfield, 
who  will  open  the  debate.”  [Cheers.] 

\ Moderator  takes  out  his  watch  to  keep  time  and  resumes  his  seat.  Lincoln 
arises  amidst  shouts  and  cheers  of  the  Lincoln  men  on  the  stage.  Gomes 
slowly  forward  to  a  position  beside  the  table ,  and  takes  a  sip  of  water.] 

Lincoln:  “Ladies  and  gentlemen” — 

[Cries  of  “Order!  Keep  quiet!”  from  the  Douglas  men  to  the  cheering 
Lincoln  men. .  .Quiet  is  restored.] 

Lincoln:  “Before  I  begin  speaking,  I  wish  to  inquire  whether  Mr.  Hitt, 
the  reporter  is  present.” 

Republican  Moderator  [rising  and  coming  forward  to  the  back  of  the 
table]  “Is  Mr.  Robert  Hitt,  the  stenographer,  in  the  crowd  about  the  stand?” 

Mr.  Hitt  [appearing  at  the  entrance  to  the  hall  if  the  stage  has  no  setting 
or  walking  on  the  stage  from  the  side  entrance],  “Gentlemen,  I  apologize  for 
my  delay  but  the  crowd  was  so  dense  about  the  stand  that  only  this  moment 
have  I  been  able  to  reach  you.  As  you  know  I  am  not  a  heavyweight  in 
body.”  ( Takes  his  place  at  the  reporter's  table  to  take  notes.  Moderator 
resumes  his  seat.) 

Lincoln:  “Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  On  Saturday  last,  Judge  Douglas  and 
myself  first  met  in  public  discussion.  He  spoke  one  hour,  I  an  hour  and  a 
half,  and  he  replied  for  half  an  hour.  The  order  is  now  reversed.  I  am  to 
speak  an  hour,  he  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  then  I  am  to  reply  for  half  an 
hour.  I  propose  to  devote  myself  during  the  first  hour  to  the  scope  of 


30 


what  was  brought  within  the  range  of  his  half-hour  speech  at  Ottawa.  Of 
course  there  was  brought  within  the  scope  in  that  half-hour’s  speech  some¬ 
thing  of  his  own  opening  speech.  In  the  course  of  that  opening  argument 
Judge  Douglas  proposed  to  me  seven  distinct  interrogatories.  In  my  speech 
of  an  hour  and  a  half,  I  attended  to  some  other  parts  of  his  speech,  and 
incidentally,  as  I  thought,  answered  one  of  his  interrogatories  then.  I  then 
distinctly  intimated  to  him  that  I  would  answer  the  rest  of  his  interrogatories 
on  condition  only  that  he  should  agree  to  answer  as  many  for  me.  He  made 
no  intimation  at  the  time  of  the  proposition,  nor  did  he  in  reply  allude  at 
all  to  that  suggestion  of  mine.  I  do  him  no  injustice  in  saying  that  he 
occupied  at  least  half  of  his  reply  in  dealing  with  me  as  though  I  had  re¬ 
fused  to  answer  his  interrogatories.  I  now  propose  that  I  will  answer  any 
of  the  interrogatories,  upon  condition  that  he  will  answer  questions  from 
me  not  exceeding  the  same  number.  I  give  him  an  opportunity  to  respond. 
(Turns  toward  Douglas  and  awaits  reply.  Douglas  smiles  and  shakes  his 
head.)  The  judge  remains  silent.  I  now  say  that  I  will  answer  his  inter¬ 
rogatories,  whether  he  answers  mine  or  not;  and  that  after  I  have  done  so, 
I  shall  propound  mine  to  him. 

My  answer  as  to  whether  I  desire  that  slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  all 
the  territories  of  the  United  States,  is  full  and  explicit  within  itself,  and 
cannot  be  made  clearer  by  any  comments  of  mine.  So  I  suppose  in  regard 
to  the  question  whether  I  am  opposed  to  the  acquisition  of  any  more  territory 
unless  slavery  is  first  prohibited  therein,  my  answer  is  such  that  I  could 
add  nothing  by  way  of  illustration,  or  making  myself  better  understood, 
than  the  answer  which  I  have  placed  in  writing. 

I  now  proceed  to  propound  to  the  judge  the  interrogatories,  so  far  as  I 
have  framed  them.  I  will  bring  forward  a  new  installment  when  I  get 
them  ready.  I  will  bring  them  forward  now,  only  reaching  to  number  four. 

The  first  one  is:  —  ( Reading  from  a  paper  which  he  takes  from  his  pocket.) 

Question  1.  If  the  people  of  Kansas  shall,  by  means  entirely  unobjection¬ 
able  in  all  other  respects,  adopt  a  state  constitution,  and  ask  admission  into 
the  union  under  it,  before  they  have  the  requisite  number  of  inhabitants 
according  to  the  English  bill, — some  ninety-three  thousand, — will  you  vote 
to  admit  them? 

Q.  2.  Can  the  people  'of  a  United  States  territory,  in  any  lawful  way, 
against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  exclude  slavery  from 
its  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  state  constitution? 

Q.  3.  If  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  shall  decide  that  states 
cannot  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  are  you  in  favor  of  acquiescing 
in,  adopting,  and  following  such  decision  as  a  rule  of  political  action? 

Q.  4.  Are  you  in  favor  of  acquiring  additional  territory,  in  disregard  of 
how  such  acquisition  may  affect  the  nation  on  the  slavery  question? 

I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  charging  as  a  matter  of  belief  on  my  part  that, 
in  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska  bill  into  Congress,  there  was  a  con¬ 
spiracy  to  make  slavery  perpetual  and  national.  I  have  arranged  from  time 
to  time  the  evidence  which  establishes  and  proves  the  truth  of  this  charge. 
I  recurred  to  this  charge  at  Ottawa.  I  shall  not  now  have  time  to  dwell 
upon  it  at  very  great  length;  but  inasmuch  as  Judge  Douglas  in  his  reply 
of  half  an  hour,  made  some  points  upon  me  in  relation  to  it,  I  propose  notic¬ 
ing  a  few  of  them. 

I  pass  one  or  two  points  I  have,  because  my  time  will  very  soon  expire;  but 
I  must  be  allowed  to  say  that  Judge  Douglas  recurs  again,  as  he  did  upon 
one  or  two  other  occasions,  to  the  enormity  of  Lincoln, — an  insignificant 
individual  like  Lincoln, — upon  .his  ipse  dixit  charging  a  conspiracy  upon  a 
large  number  of  members  of  congress,  the  supreme  court,  and  two  presidents, 
to  nationalize  slavery.  I  want  to  say  that,  in  the  first  place,  I  have  made 
no  charge  of  this  sort  upon  my  ipse  dixit.  I  have  only  arrayed  the  evidence 
tending  to  prove  it,  and  presented  it  to  the  understanding  of  others,  saying 
what  I  think  it  proves,  but  giving  you  the  means  of  judging  whether  it  proves 
it  or  not.  This  is  precisely  what  I  have  done.  I  have  not  placed  it  upon 
my  ipse  dixit  at  all.  On  this  occasion,  I  wish  to  recall  his  attention  to  a 
piece  of  evidence  which  I  brought  forward  at  Ottawa  on  Saturday,  showing 


3i 


that  he  had  made  substantially  the  same  charge  against  substantially  the 
same  persons,  excluding  his  dear  self  from  the  category.  I  ask  him ’to  give 
some  attention  to  the  evidence  which  I  brought  forward  that  he  himself 
had  discovered  a  “fatal  blow  being  struck”  against  the  right  of  the  people 
to  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  which  fatal  blow  he  assumed  as  in 
evidence  in  am  article  in  the  Washington  Union,  published  “by  authority.” 
I  ask  by  whose  authority?  He  discovers  a  similar  or  identical  provision  in 
the  Lecompton  Constitution.  •  Made  by  whom?  The  framers  of  that  con¬ 
stitution.  Advocated  by  whom?  By  all  the  members  of  the  party  in  the 
nation,  who  advocated  the  introduction  of  Kansas  into  the  union  under 
the  Lecompton  constitution. 

I  have  asked  his  attention  to  the  evidence  that  he  arrayed  to  prove  that 
such  a  fatal  blow  was  being  struck,  and  to  the  facts  which  he  brought  for¬ 
ward  in  support  of  that  charge, — being  identical  with  the  one  which  he 
thinks  so  villainous  in  me.  He  pointed  it  not  at  a  newspaper  editor  merely, 
but  at  the  president  and  his  cabinet  and  the  members  of  congress  advocating 
the  Lecompton  Constitution  and  those  framing  that  instrument.  I  must 
again  be  permitted  to  remind  him,  that  although  my  ipse  dixit  may  not  be 
as  great  as  his,  yet  it  somewhat  reduces  the  force  of  his  calling  my  attention 
to  the  enormity  of  my  making  a  like  charge  against  him.  Gentlemen,  I  have 
finished.  ( Turning  to  Douglas.)  Go  on,  Judge  Douglas.  ( Tremendous 
cheering  from  Lincoln  men.) 

Democratic  Moderator  (Col.  Mitchell)  ( rising  and  coming  forward  to 
table):  “Ladies  and  gentlemen:  As  moderator  for  the  democratic  side,  it 
becomes  my  pleasant  duty  to  introduce  to  you  the  champion  of  home  rule 
for  Kansas,  the  prince  of  debaters,  whom  twice  we  elected  senator  from 
Illinois  and  now  propose  to  make  it  three  times  ( cheers  from  Douglas  men), 
the  favorite  son  of  the  prairie  state,  Stephen  A.  Douglas.”  {Cheers.) 

Douglas  {arising  and  coming  forward  as  Moderator  retires) :  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen:  “The  silence  with  which  you  have  listened  to  Mr.  Lincoln 

during  his  hour  is  creditable  to  his  vast  audience,  composed  of  men  of 
various  political  parties.  Nothing  is  more  honorable  to  any  large  mass  of 
people  assembled  for  the  purpose  of  a  fair  discussion,  than  that  kind  and 
respectful  attention  that  is  yielded  not  only  to  your  political  friends,  but 
to  those  who  .are  opposed  to  you  in  politics. 

First,  he  desires  to  know  if  the  people  of  Kansas  shall  form  a  constitution 
by  means  entirely  proper  and  unobjectionable,  and  ask  admission  into  the 
union  as  a  state,  before  they  have  the  requisite  population  for  a  member  of 
congress,  whether  I  will  vote  for  that  admission.  *  *  *  it  is  my  opinion 

that  as  she  has  population  enough  to  constitute  a  slave  state,  she  has  people 
enough  for  a  free  state.  I  will  not  make  Kansas  an  exceptional  case  to  the 
other  states  of  the  union.  I  hold  it  to  be  a  sound  rule  of  universal  applica¬ 
tion,  to  require  a  territory  to  contain  the  requisite  population  for  a  member 
of  congress  before  it  is  admitted  as  a  state  into  the  union. 

The  next  question  propounded  to  me  by  Mr.  Lincoln  is,  can  the  people 
of  a  territory  in  any  lawful  way,  against  the  wishes  of  any  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of  a 
state  constitution?  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  that  I  had  answered  that  question 
over  and  over  again.  *  *  * 

It  matters  not  what  way  the  Supreme  Court  may  hereafter  decide  as  to 
the  abstract  question  whether  slavery  may  or  may  not  go  into  a  territory 
under  the  constitution,  the  people  have  the  lawful  means  to  introduce  it 
or  exclude  it  as  they  please,  for  the  reason  that  slavery  cannot  exist  a  day 
or  an  hour  anywhere,  unless  it  is  supported  by  local  police  regulations. 
Those  police  regulations  can  only  be  established  by  the  local  legislature; 
and  if  the  people  are  opposed  to  slavery,  they  will  elect  representatives  to 
that  body  who  will  by  unfriendly  legislation  effectually  prevent  the  introduc¬ 
tion  of  it  into  their  midst.  If,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  for  it,  their  legisla¬ 
tion  will  favor  its  extension.  Hence,  no  matter  what  the-  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  may  be  on  that  abstract  question,  still  the  right  of  the  people 
to  make  a  Slave  Territory  or  a  Free  Territory  is  perfect  and  complete  under 
the  Nebraska  bill.  I  hope  Mr.  Lincoln  deems  my  answer  satisfactory  on  that 
point.  ■ 


32 


The  third  question  which  Mr.  Lincoln  presented  is,  if  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  shall  decide  that  a.  state  of  this  Union  cannot  exclude 
slavery  from  its  own  limits,  will  I  submit  to  it?  I  am  amazed  that  Lincoln 
should  ask  such  a  question. 

(One  of  the  Douglas  supporters  interrupting )  “A  school-boy  knows  better.” 

“Yes,  a  school-boy  does  know  better.  Mr.  Lincoln’s  object  is  to  cast  an 
imputation  upon  the  Supreme  Court.  He  knows  that  there  never  was  but 
one  man  in  America,  claiming  any  degree  of.  intelligence  or  decency,  who 
ever  for  a  moment  pretended  such  a  thing. 

The  fourth  question  of  Mr.  Lincoln  is,  Are  you  in  favor  of  acquiring  addi¬ 
tional  territory,  in  disregard  as  to  how  such  acquisition  may  affect  the 
Union  on  the  slavery  question?  This  question  is  very  ingeniously  and 
cunningly  put. 

The  Black  Republican  creed  lays  it  down  expressly,  that  under  no  circum¬ 
stances  shall  we  .acquire  any  more  territory,  unless  slavery  is  first  prohibited 
in  the  country.  I  ask  Mr.  Lincoln  whether  he  is  in  favor  of  that  proposition. 
Are  you  ( addressing  Mr.  Lincoln )  opposed  to  the  acquisition  of  any  more 
territory,  under  any  circumstances,  unless  slavery  is  prohibited  in  it?  That 
he  does  not  like  to  answer.  When  I  ask  him  whether  he  stands  up  to  that 
article  in  the  platform  of  his  party,  he  turns,  Yankee-fashion,  and  without 
answering  it,  asks  me  whether  I  am  in  favor  of  acquiring  territory  without 
regard  to  how  it  may  affect  the  Union  on  the  slavery  question.  I  answer 
that  whenever  it  becomes  necessary,  in  our  growth  and  progress,  to  acquire 
more  territory,  that  I  am  in  favor  of  it,  without  reference  to  the  question 
of  slavery;  and  when  we  have  acquired  it,  I  will  leave  the  people  free  to  do 
as  they  please,  either  to  make  it  slave  or  free  territory,  as  they  prefer. 

I  trust  now  that  Mr.  Lincoln  will  deem  himself  answered  on  his  four 
points.  He  racked  his  brain  so  much  in  devising  these  four  questions  that 
he  exhausted  himself,  and  had  not  strength  enough  to  invent  the  others. 
As  soon  as  he  is  able  to  hold  a  council  with  his  advisers,  Lovejoy,  Farns¬ 
worth,  and  Fred  Douglass,  he  will  frame  and  propound  others. 

( Lincoln  shouters  interrupting),  “Good.  Good.” 

You  Black  Republicans  who  say  “good,”  I  have  no  doubt  think  they  are 
all  good  men.  I  have  reason  to  recollect  that  some  people  in  this  country 
think  that  Fred  Douglass  is  a  very  good  man.  The  last  time,  I  came  here 
to  make  a  speech,  while  talking  from  the  stand  to  you,  people  of  Freeport, 
as  I  am  doing  to-day,  I  saw  a  carriage — and  a  magnificent  one  it  was — 
drive  up  and  take  a  position  on  the  outside  of  the  crowd;  a  beautiful  young 
lady  was  sitting  on  the  box-seat,  whilst  Fred  Douglass  and  her  mother 
reclined  inside,  and  the  owner  of  the  carriage  acted  as  driver.  I  saw  this 
in  your  own  town. 

A  Lincoln  man  interrupting ,  “What  of  it?” 

All  I  have  to  say  of  it  is  this,  that  if  you  Black  Republicans,  think  that 
the  negro  ought  to  be  on  a  social  equality  with  your  wives  and  daughters, 
and  ride  in  a  carriage  with  your  wife,  whilst  you  drive  the  team,  you  have 
perfect  right  to  do  so.  I  am  told  that  one  of  Fred  Douglass’  kinsmen, 
another  rich  black  negro,  is  now  traveling  in  this  part  of  the  State  making 
speeches  for  his  friend  Lincoln  as  the  champion  of  black  men. 

(A  Lincoln  man  interrupting) ,  “"What  have  you  to  say  against  it?” 

All  I  have  to  say  on  that  subject  is,  that  those  of  you  who  believe  that 
the  negro  is  your  equal  and  ought  to  be  on  an  equality  with  you  socially, 
politically  and  legally,  have  a  right  to  entertain  those  opinions,  and  of  course 
will  vote  for  Mr.  Lincoln. 

Now  there  are  a  great  many  Black  Republicans” — 

(A  Lincoln  supporter,  interrupting) ,  “Couldn’t  you  modify  it  and  make  it 
brown?” 

Douglas:  “Not  a  bit.  I  say  there  are  a  great  many  Black  Republicans 
of  you  who  do  not  know  how  this  thing  was  done. 

( Lincoln  men,  interrupting)  ;  “Make  it  white!  White  Republicans!  White! 
White!”  ( great  clamor.) 

Douglas,  ( apparently  losing  his  temper)  “I  wish  to  remind  you  that  while 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  speaking  there  was  not  a  Democrat  vulgar  and  blackguard 
enough  to  interrupt  him.  But  I  know  that  the  shoe  is  pinching  you.  I  am 


STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS. 


“There  can  be  no  neutrals  in  this  war — only  patriots  or  traitors.” — Douglas. 
May  1,  1861. 


33 


clinching  Lincoln  now  and  you  are  scared  to  death  for  the  result.  I  have 
seen  this  thing  before,  I  have  seen  men  make  appointments  for  joint  discus¬ 
sions,  and  the  moment  their  man  has  been  heard,  try  to  interrupt  and  prevent 
a  fair  hearing  of  the  other  side.  I  have  seen  your  mobs  before,  and  defy 
your  wrath.  (Tremendous  applause.)  My  friends,  do  not  cheer,  for  I  need 
my  whole  time.  *  *  *  I  know  Mr.  Lincoln’s  object;  he  wants  to  divide 

the  Democratic  party,  in  order  that  he  may  defeat  me  and  get  to  the  Senate. 

Democratic  Moderator:  “Judge,  your  time  is  just  expired.” 

\ Douglas  bows  and  retires  to  his  chair  amidst  prolonged  Democratic  cheer¬ 
ing .] 

Republican  Moderator:  “Mr.  Lincoln  has  thirty  minutes  in  which  to 
close  the  debate.  Let  all  be  quiet  and  orderly.” 

Lincoln:  “My  Friends:  It  will  readily  occur  to  you  that  I  cannot,  in 
half  an  hour,  notice  all  the  things  that  so  able  a  man  as  Judge  Douglas  can 
say  in  an  hour  and  a  half;  and  I  hope,  therefore,  if  there  be  anything  that 
he  has  said  upon  which  you  would  like  to  hear  something  from  me,  but 
which  I  omit  to  comment  upon,  you  will  bear  in  mind  that  it  would  be 
expecting  an  impossibility  for  me  to  go  over  his  whole  ground.  I  can  but 
take  up  some  of  the  points  that  he  has  dwelt  upon,  and  employ  my  half-hour 
specially  on  them. 

The  first  thing  I  have  to  say  to  you  is  a  word  in  regard  to  Judge  Douglas’ 
declaration  about  the  “vulgarity  and  blackguardism”  in  the  audience, — that 
no  such  thing,  as  he  says,  was  shown  by  any  Democrat  while  I  was  speaking. 
Now,  I  only  wish,  by  way  of  reply  on  this  subject,  to  say  that  while  I  was 
speaking,  I  used  no  “vulgarity  or  blackguardism”  toward  any  Democrat. 

The  Judge  has  again  addressed  himself  to  the  abolition  tendencies  of  a 
speech  of  mine  made  at  Springfield  in  June  last.  I  have  so  often  tried  to 
answer  what  he  is  always  saying  on  that  melancholy  theme,  that  I  almost 
turn  with  disgust  from  the  discussion, — from  the  repetition  of  an  answer 
to  it.  I  trust  that  nearly  all  of  this  intelligent  audience  have  read  -that 
speech.  If  you  have,  I  may  venture  to  leave  it  to  you  to  inspect  it  closely, 
and  see  whether  it  contains  any  of  those  “bugaboos”  which  frighten  Judge 
Douglas. 

He  says  if  I  should  vote  for  the  admission  of  a  slave  state  I  would  be 
voting  for  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  because  I  hold  that  the  Union  cannot 
permanently  exist  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  repeat  that  I  do  not  believe 
this  government  can  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free;  yet  I 
do  not  admit,  nor  does  it  at  all  follow,  that  the  admission  of  a  single  slave 
state  will  permanently  fix  the  character  and  establish  this  as  a  universal 
slave  nation.  The  Judge  is  very  happy  indeed  working  up  these  quibbles. 

His  hope  rested  on  the  idiea  of  visiting  the  great  “Black  Republican”  party, 
and  making  it  the  tail  of  his  new  kite.  He  knows  he  was  *  *  *  expect¬ 

ing  from  day  to  day  to  turn  Republican  and  place  himself  at  the  head  of 
our  organization.  He  has  found  that  these  despised  “Black  Republicans” 
estimate  him  by  a  standard  which  he  has  taught  them  none  too  well,  hence 
he  is  crawling  back  into  his  old  camp,  and  you  will  find  him  eventually 
installed  in  full  fellowship  among  those  whom  he  was  then  battling,  and 
with  whom  he  now  pretends  to  be  at  such  fearful  variance.” 

Republican  Moderator  \ tapping  on  the  table],  “Mr.  Lincoln,  I  am  sorry 
to  say  that  your  half  hour  has  expired.” 

Lincoln  supporters:  “Go  on!  Go  on!  Lay  him  out  cold!  Go  on!” 
(Cheers.) 

Lincoln:  “I  cannot  gentlemen,  my  time  has  expired.”  \ Great  applause 
; from  Lincoln  men.) 

\ Douglas  immediately  rises  and  very  gravely  walks  off  the  stage  surrounded 
by  his  followers  cheering.  Lincoln's  men  try  to  carry  him  off  on  their 
shoulders,  notwithstanding  his  protests.  They  cheer  boisterously,  liHurrah 
for  Old  Abe!"  etc.] 

Note — If  desired,  one  of  the  several  songs  printed  in  this  pamphlet  could 
be  sung  informally  before  or  after  the  debate.  Or  it  could  be  introduced 
effectively  just  after  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Lincoln’s  second  speech  by  the 

— 3  D 


34 


Republican  moderator  calling  for  order  and  saying,  “Ladies  and  Gentlemen, 
before  we  disperse  I  have  the  pleasure  of  announcing  that  we  have  with  us 
the  celebrated  Monmouth  Glee  Club  which  has  done  us  good  service  during 
this  campaign.  They  will  now  favor  us  with  a  selection.”  f Lincoln  cheers.'] 
Or  the  Democratic  moderator  could  say,  “Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  I  am 
happy  to  say  that  the  celebrated  Douglas  Singers  of  Chicago  are  on  the 
grounds  and  will  favor  us  with  a  selection.”  [Douglas  cheers.] 


A  LINCOLN  CAMPAIGN  SONG,  1858. 

OLD  DAN  TUCKER. 

We  hear  a  cry  increasing  still,  . 

Like  light  it  springs  from  hill  to  hill — 

From  Pennsylvania’s  State  it  leaps, 

And  o’er  the  Buckeye  valley  sweeps. 

Get  out  of  ihe  way  Stephen  Douglas! 

Get  out  of  the  way  Stephen  Douglas! 

Get  out  of  the  way  Stephen  Douglas  ! 

Lincoln  is  the  man  we  want  to  serve  us  ! 

The  Floosier  State  first  caught  the  cry, 

The  Hawkeye  State  then  raised  it  high, 

The  Sucker'  State  now  waits  the  day, 

When  Lincoln  leads  to  victory! 

Get  out  of  the  way,  etc. 

Cheer  up  for  victory’s  on  its  way, 

No  power  its  onward  march  can  stay, 

As  well  as  to  stop  the  thunder’s  roar, 

As  hope  for  Douglas  to  serve  us  more. 

Get  out  of  the  way,  etc. 

Then  Freemen,  rally,  one  and  all, 

Respond  to  our  brave  leader’s  call ; 

Free  Speech,  Free  Press,  Free  Soil,  want  we, 

And  Lincoln  to  lead  for  Liberty  !  , 

Get  out  of  the  way,  etc. 

, — Illinois  State  Journal,  Oct.  27,  1858. 


A  DOUGLAS  SONG  OF  1858. 

We  won’t  vote  for  Lincoln,  nor  for  one  of  his  hand, 

We’ll  stick  to  brave  Douglas  as  long  as  we  can, 

His  name  is  arising  from  the  east  to  the  west, 

Since  old  Hickory  is  gone,  we  think  he’s  the  best 
Through  these  hard  times. 

Our  Douglas  is  fearless — he  cares  for  no  man, 

He  will  stand  by  the  Union  as  long  as  he  can. 

Though  Buck  may  oppose  him,  he’ll  force  him  to  yield. 

To  give  up  the  tight  and  then  leave  the  field, 

Through  these  hard  times. 

— Chicago  Times,  Oct.  27,  1858. 


OH,  YOU  CAN’T  GO  TO  THE  CAPER,  STEPHEN. 

Our  sucker  pole  is  planted. 

Our  flag  is  now  unfurled. 

For  Abe  we  go  undaunted, 

We  proclaim  it  to  the  world.  * 

Ye  slanderers  of  Republicans 
Lav  down  your  pen  and  paper, 

For  Little  Stephen’s  race  is  run — 

He  cannot  go  the  caper. 

And  now  huzzah,  my  lively  lads, 

We’ll  take  a  noble  stand 
In  favor  of  our  Statesman, 

The  greatest  of  the  land. 

The  wood-chopper  of  Sangamo, 

Who  dares  our  rights  to  maintain, 

And  never  will  submit  to 
A  Douglas’  selfish  reign. 

From  the  'Wide-Awake  Vocalist.  A  Republican  campaign  song  book  of  I860. 


35 


“WIDE-AWAKE  CLUB”  SONG. 

(Tune — “A  Wet  and  a  Flowing  Sea”.) 

Oh,  hear  you  not  the  wild  huzzas 
That  come  from  every  State? 

For  honest  Uncle  Abraham, 

The  people’s  candidate? 

He  is  our  choice,  our  nominee, 

A  self-made  man  and  true  ; 

We’ll  show  the  Democrats  this  fall 
What  honest  Abe  can  do. 

Then  give  us  Abe,  and  Hamlin,  too, 

To  guide  our  gallant  ship, 

With  Seward,  Sumner,  Chase,  and  Clay, 

And  then  a  merry  trip. 

I  hear  that  Doug  is  half  inclined 
To  give  us  all  leg-bail, 

Preferring  exercise  on  foot 
To  riding  on  a  rail. 

For  Abe  has  one  already  mauled 
Upon  the  White  House  plan ; 

If  once  Doug,  gets  astride  of  that, 

He  is  a  used-up  man. 

Then  give  us  Abe,  and  Hamlin,  too, 

To  guide  our  gallant  ship, 

With  Seward,  Sumner,  Chase,  and  Clay, 

And  then  a  merry  trip. 

— From  Hutchinson’s  Republican  Songster. 


NEW  NURSERY  BALLADS. 

(Good  for  Little  Democrats.) 

1.  Sing  a  song  of  Charleston  ! 

Bottle  full  of  Rye  ! 

All  the  Douglas  delegates 
Knocked  into  a  pi — 

For  when  the  vote  was  opened, 

The  South  began  to  sing, 

“Your  little  Squatter  Sovereign 
Shan't  be  our  King”  ! 

2.  Hi  diddle,  diddle  !  The  Dred  Scott  riddle  ! 

The  Delegates  scatter  like  loons  ! 

The  Little  Doug  swears  to  see  the  sport, 
And  the  Southerners  count  their  spoons. 

3.  There  was  a  little  Senator 

Who  wasn’t  very  wise, 

He  jumped  into  Convention 

And  scratched  out  both  his  eyes ; 

And  when  he  found  his  eyes  were  out, 
With  all  his  might  and  main, 

He  bolted  off  to  Baltimore 
To  scratch  them  in  again. 


THE  BOY’S  WISH. 

(From  the  Wide-Awake  Vocalist,  a  republican  campaign  song  book  of  1860.) 

Song  for  Children. 

Air — If  I  were  a  Little  Bird. 

If  I  were  a  man,  six  feet  in  my  boots, 

I’d  be  at  the  ballot  box,  watching  the  votes ; 

Or  out  among  the  people  with  flags  of  starry  blue, 

I’d  have  a  happy  time — say,  would  not  you? 

Oh,  I  would  make  a  stump-speech  in  the  pleasant  dell, 

The  bob-o-link,  my  sexton,  to  ring  his  silver  bell, 

Wood-flowers  repeating  the  glory  of  the  skies, 

Should  clasp  their  green  hands  and  smile  with  their  eyes. 

I  should  cross  the  prairie,  where  the  wild  flowers  bloom. 

And  visit  honest  Lincoln  in  his  western  home  ; 

And  its  pulses  are  true  as  the  tides  of  the  main, 

For  they  say  his  heart  is  broad  as  the  prairie’s  sea-like  plain, 


36 


4fA  DOUGLAS  TO  THE  FRAY.” 

(A  Campaign  Song  of  1858.) 

BY  JOHN  BROUGHAM. 

When  Saxon  raid, 

With  brand  and  blade, 

O’er  Scotia’s  borders  came, 

And  gave  the  land, 

With  bloody  hand, 

To  the  pillage  and  to  flame  ; 

’Twas  thus  rang  out 
The  welcome  shout, 

From  mountain  and  from  brae  ; 

“God  and  our  right ! 

Stand  firm  and  fight ! 

A  Douglas  to  the  fray  !” 

Oh  never  was 
Unworthy  cause 
Linked  with  that  rallying  cry, 

To  friends  a  spell, 

To  foes  a  knell, 

Whene’er  it  pierced  the  sky  ; 

And  as  the  shout, 

Rang  fiercely  out, 

Fate  owned  its  conquering  sway  ; 

Stand  firm  and  fight ! 

For  truth  and  right ! 

“A  Douglas  to  the  fray  !” 

On  story’s  page, 

In  every  age, 

Through  every  path  of  fame, 

In  glory’s  round 
May  still  be  found 
Enrolled,  that  deathless  name. 

Speed  as  of  old, 

The  chieftan  bold, 

Who  bears  it  at  this  day  ; 

Stand  firm  and  fight, 

For  truth  and  right ! 

“A  Douglas  to  the  fray  !” 

— Quincy,  Til.,  Whig,  Nov.  IS,  1858. 


DOUGLAS’  COMPLAINT. 

(From  the  Wide-Awake  Vocalist,  a  republican  campaign  song  book  of  1860.) 

He  punished  me — in  fight  you  see, 

And  said  I  had  the  wrong  of  it ; 

For  I  am  small  and  he  is  tall 

And  that’s  the  short  and  long  of  it. 

He  split  a  rail  through  my  coat  tail, 

He  quickly  thrust  the  prong  of  it ; 

I’m  five  feet  one,  that  lofty  son 
Is  six  feet  four  and  strong  of  it. 


UNCLE  ABE. 

(From  the  Lincoln  Campaign  Songster,  1858.) 

(Tune — Nellie  Bly.) 

Uncle  Abe,  Uncle  Abe !  here  we  are  again. 

We’ve  got  a  platform  now  we  think  that  will  not  bend  or  strain, 
Beat  the  drum,  unfurl  the  flag,  freedom  is  for  all. 

And  so  we  fling  it  to  the  breeze  as  in  the  ranks  we  fall. 

Chorus. 

Ho,  Uncle  Abe  !  Listen  Uncle  Abe  !  and  see. 

We  sing  for  you,  work  for  you,  hurrah  for  liberty  ! 

Uncle  Abe.  we  have  tried,  and  we've  found  him  true, 

We  know  that  he  is  honest  in  the  work  he  has  to  do. 

Uncle  Abe  has  his  faults  and  so  have  other  men. 

But  in  firmness  for  the  Union,  we’ll  not  find  his  like  again. 


THE  LINCOLN  MONUMENT 


37 


Uncle  Abe  is  the  man  for  the  work  in  hand  ; 

He  knows  the  ropes  about  the  ship  upon  whose  deck  we  stand  ; 
Waves  may  dash  and  winds  may  roar,  but  he’ll  guide  us  on, 
Till  slavery’s  storm  is  over  and  port  of  peace  is  won. 


EMERSON  ON  LINCOLN’S  LITERARY  ABILITY. 

He  is  the  author  of  a  multitude  of  good  sayings,  so  disguised  as  pleasant¬ 
ries  that  it  is  certain  they  had  no  reputation  at  first  but  as  jests;  and  only 
later  by  the  very  acceptance  and  adoption  they  find  in  the  mouths  of  millions, 
turn  out  to  be  the  wisdom  of  the  hour.  But  the  weight  and  penetration  of 
many  passages  in  his  letters,  messages,  and  speeches,  hidden  now  by  the  very 
closeness  of  their  application  to  the  moment,  are  destined  hereafter  to  a 
wide  fame.  What  pregnant  definitiveness!  What  unerring  common  sense! 
What  foresight!  and,  on  great  occasions,  what  lofty  and  more  than  national; 
what  human  tone! 

His  brief  speech  at  Gettysburg  will  not  easily  be  surpassed  by  words  on 
any  recorded  occasion.  This  and  one  other  American  speech,  that  of  John 
Brown  to  the  court  that  tried  him,  and  a  part  of  Kossuth’s  speech  at  Bir¬ 
mingham,  can  only  be  compared  with  each  other  and  with  no  fourth. 


DEDICATION  OF  GETTYSBURG  BATTLE  FIELD. 

LINCOLN’S  GREATEST  LITERARY  EFFORT. 

Four  score  and  seven  years  ago_our  fathers  brought  forth  on  this  con¬ 
tinent  a  new  nation  conceived  in  liberty  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition 
that  all  men  are  created  equal. 

Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation  or 
any  nation  so  conceived  and  so  dedicated  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a 
great  battle-field  of  that  war.  We  have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that 
field  as  a  final  resting  place  for  those  who  have  gave  their  lives  that  the  nation 
might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do  this. 

But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate — we  cannot  consecrate — we  can¬ 
not  hollow  this  ground.  The  brave  ment,  living  and  dead  who  struggled  here, 
have  consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world 
will  little  note  nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget 
what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather,  to  be  dedicated  here  to 
the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  ad¬ 
vanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining 
before  us — that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that 
cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here 
highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain;  that  this  nation, 
under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom;  and  that  government  of  the 
people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth? 

Note — In  June,  1863,  the  Confederate  forces  invaded  the  Northern  states  and  encountered 
the  Federal  forces  at  Gettysburg,  Pennsylvania,  June  29,  30  and  July  1,  in  a  contest  which 
marked  “the  high  tide  of  the  Civil  war.”  Congress  purchased  a  portion  of  the  battle-field  for 
a  cemetery  in  which  to  bury  the  dead  soldiers,  and  in  November,  1863,  at  the  dedication 
exercises,  Lincoln  delivered  the  above  brief  address. 


A  LAST  GLIMPSE  OF  THE  RIVALS. 

DOUGLAS  AT  THE  INAUGURATION  OF  LINCOLN. 

When  the  president-elect,  on  inauguration  day,  stepped  out  upon  the  plat¬ 
form  that  had  been  erected  in  front  of  the  eastern  portico  of  the  capitol,  he 
found  the  senior  senator  from  Illinois  among  the  distinguished  men  who 
sat  awaiting  him.  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  if  to  add  to  the  novelty  of  his  situation, 
was  dressed  in  fine  clothes,  of  which  for  the  moment,  he  appeared  to  be  all 


38 


too  conscious.  In  one  hand  tie  held  a  new  silk  hat;  in  the  other,  a  gold¬ 
headed  cane.  _W  hat  to  do  with  them  perplexed  him.  After  some  hesitation, 
he  put  the  cane  into  a  corner;  but  he  could  not  find  a  place  for  the  hat, 
which  he  evidently  was  unwilling  to  lay  on  the  rough  board  floor.  As  he 
stood  there  in  embarrassment,  with  the  waiting  multitude  looking  up 
curiously  at  him,  his  old  rival  came  to  his  rescue.  Taking  the  precious  hat 
from  its  owner’s  hand,  Douglas  held  it,  while  Lincoln  took  the  oath  of  office 
and  delivered  his  inaugural  address.  The  incident,  simple  in  itself,  forms 
a  dramatic  climax  to  the  lifelong  competition  between  them.  As  Lincoln 
stands  forth  crowned  with  the  highest  honors  to  which  their  conflicting  am¬ 
bitions  had  aspired,  Douglas  in  the  background,  humbly  holds  the  victor’s 
hat. —  ( Rothschild ,  Alonzo,  Houghton,  Niffin  &  Co.) 

Note— Exactly  three  months  later,  Douglas  died  at  his  home  in  Chicago  and  a  little  over 
four  years  later  Lincoln  was  assassinated  in  Washington. 


BURY  ME  IN  THE  MORNING. 

BX  STEPHEN  A.'  DOUGLAS.- 

Bury  me  in  the  morning,  mother, 

O  let  me  have  the  light 
Of  one  bright  day  on  my  grave,  mother, 

Ere  you  leave  me  alone  with  the  night ; 

Alone  in  the  night  of  the  grave,  mother, 

’Tis  a  thought  of  terrible  fear, 

And  you  will  be  here  alone,  mother, 

And  stars  will  be  shining  here  ; 

So  bury  me  in  the  morning,  mother, 

And  let  me  have  the  light 
Of  one  bright  day  on  my  grave,  mother, 

Ere  I’m  alone  with  the  night. 

You  tell  me  of  a  Saviour’s  love,  mother, 

I  feel  it  is  in  my  heart - 

But  oh  !  from  this  beautiful  world,  mother, 

’Tis  hard  for  the  young  to  part, 

Forever  to  part,  when  here,  mother, 

The  soul  is  fain  to  stay ; 

For  the  grave  is  deep  and  dark,  mother, 

And  heaven  seems  far  away. 

Then  bury  me  in  the  morning,  mother, 

And  let  me  have  the  light 
Of  one  bright  day  on  my  grave,  mother, 

Ere  I'm  alone  with  the  night. 

— From  the  Life  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas ,  published  at  No.  37,  Park  Row,  New 
York ,  1861. 


LAST  WORDS  OF  DOUGLAS. 

The  Chicago  Post  has  the  following  touching  paragraph  in  regard  to  the 
last  moments  of  Senator  Douglas: 

“tell  my  children  to  love  and  uphold  the  constitution.” 

A  few  hours  before  his  death,  Senator  Douglas  revived  from  the  condition 
of  almost  total  unconsciousness  in  which  he  had  lain  for  many  hours.  His 
mind  seemed  to  resume  its  wonted  faculties,  and  he  conversed  in  a  feeble 
voice  with  those  around  him.  He  expressed  a  knowledge  that  death  was 
approaching.  His  devoted  wife,  still  keeping  her  long  and  anxious  vigils  at 
his  bedside,  asked  the  dying  statesman  if  he  had  any  message  to  leave  for  his 
children,  Robert  and  Stephen.  The  question  at  first  was  not  heard,  but  upon 
the  wife’s  repeating  it,  his  voice  and  frame  seemed  suddenly  to  possess  new 
strength  as  he  replied,  “Tell  my  children  to  love  and  uphold  the  Constitution .” 
Tney  were  almost  the  last  words  he  spoke.  A  few  moments  afterwards,  he 
desired  to  be  raised  higher  upon  the  pillow  in  order  that  he  might  look  out 
from  his  window.  The  wish  was  complied  with.  One  of  the  physicians  ex¬ 
pressed  a  doubt  as  to  the  ease  of  his  position;  he  answered  with  feeble 
utterance.  “It  is  comfortable.”  His  eyes  soon  closed,  his  head  sank  upon  the 
pillow,  his  lips  faintly  articulated  “death — death — death!”  and  the  spirit  of 
life  had  departed. 


Bibliography  of  the  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates. 


Arnold,  Isaac  Newton — The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  debate;  Chap.  IX, 
pp.  139-152;  few  excerpts,  good  general  description  with  anecdotes;  Chicago: 
A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  1891. 

Blaine,  James  G. — Twenty  years  of  Congress,  1861-1881;  debate,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
143-150;  good  general  sketch  and  comparison;  good  political  view;  Norwich, 
Conn:  McHenry  Bill  Publishing  Co.,  1884. 

Brooks,  Noah — Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Downfall  of  American  Slavery; 
debate,  Chapter  XIII,  pp.  161-178;  general  description  and  excerpts;  New 
York:  G.  P.  Putnam’s  Sons,  1894. 

Browne,  Francis  F. —  xne  Everyday  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  debate,  pp. 
277-307;  good  sketch  with  anecdotes;  New  York  and  St.  Louis:  N.  D. 
Thompson  Publishing  Co.,  1886. 

Chittenden,  L.  E. — Abraham  Lincoln’s  Speeches;  debate,  117-181;  extracts; 
New  York:  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  1895. 

Hapgood,  Norman. — Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Man  of  the  People.  Debate:  pp. 
141-148.  General,  good.  New  York:  The  MacMillan  Co.,  1899. 

Herndon,  William  Henry  and  Weik,  Jesse  William. — Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  true  story  of  a  great  life.  With  an  introduction  by  Horace  White.  De¬ 
bate,  V.  2  Chap.  IV,  pp.  88-132.  Excellent  contemporary  account  by  Horace 
White  who  attended  debates  for  the  Chicago  “Press  and  Tribune”  for  Lincoln 
side;  few  excerpts;  description  of  campaign.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.,  1892. 

Lincoln,  Abraham  and  Douglas,  Stephen  Arnold, — The  first  Lincoln 
and  Douglas  debate  at  Ottawa,  Ill.,  Aug.  21,  1858;  Boston,  1897;  (Old  South 
leaflets,  general  ser.)  V.  4,  No.  85’;  debate;  text  only. 

Lincoln,  Abraham. — Speeches  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  including  inaugurals 
and  proclamations.  Selected  and  edited  with  an  introduction  and  prefatory 
notes  by  G.  Mercer  Adam;  New  York:  A.  L.  Burt  Co.,  1896;  debate,  pp. 
94-223.  Each  debate  prefaced  by  brief  synopsis. 

Nicolay,  John  G.  and  Hay,  John. — Abraham  Lincoln;  complete  works; 
debate,  challenge  and  arrangements  for,  Vol.  I,  pp.  273-277:  Ottawa,  Ill., 
Aug.  21,  1858,  I,  277-305;  Freeport,  Ill.,  Aug.  27,  1858,  I,  305-335;  Jonesboro, 
Ill.,  Sept.  15,  1858,  I,  335-369;  Charleston,  Ill.,  Sept.  18,  1858,  I,  369-412; 
Galesburg,  Ill.,  Oct.  7,  1858,  I,  425-455;  Quincy,  Ill.,  Oct.  13,  1858,  I,  456-485; 
Alton,  Ill.,  Oct.  15,  1858,  I,  485-518.  New  York:  The  Century  Co.,  1894. 

Nicolay,  John  G.  and  Hay,  John. — Abraham  Lincoln;  A  History;  debate, 
Vol.  II,  Chaps.  VIII  and  IX;  Analysis,  excerpts  and  thorough  narrative; 
New  York:  The  Century  Co.,  1890. 

Oldroyd,  Osbourn  Hamtltne. — Words  of  Lincoln,  including  several  hundred 
opinions  of  his  life  and  character;  debate,  pp.  29-36;  Lincoln  excerpts;  no 
comment;  Washington:  O.  H.  Oldroyd,  1895. 

Rothschild,  Alonzo. — Lincoln,  Master  of  Men:  A  Study  of  Character; 
debate,  pp.  101-112;  anecdotes  and  digest;  Boston,  1906. 

Schurz,  Carl. — Abraham  Lincoln;  An  Essay;  debate,  pp.  43-53;  view  of 
nolitical  situation  and  excerpts;  Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin 
&  Co.,  1891.  Republished  1899  in  Riverside  Literature  Series,  No.  133, 
April  5. 


40 


Tarbell,  Ida  M. — The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  drawn  from  original 
sources  and  containing  many  speeches,  letters  and  telegrams;  debate,  Chap. 
XVIII,  pp.  307-323;  general  description  with  quotations  from  those  present; 
New  York:  The  Doubleday  &  McClure  Co.,  1900. 

Washburne,  Elihu  Benjamin. — Abraham  Lincoln;  His  Personal  History 
and  Public  Record;  speech  by  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  May  29, 
1860;  Washington,  1860;  (36th  Cong.,  1st  session  House;  appendix  to  the 
Congressional  Globe;  debate,  pp.  377-380.  Interesting  speech,  contemporary 
political  views  favorable  to  Lincoln;  excerpts. 

Periodicals. 

Brown,  William  Garrett. — Lincoln’s  Rival.  Atlantic;  89;  226.  A  good 
comparison  of  characters  and  analysis  of  situation. 

Recollections  of  the  First  Debate  Between  Lincoln  and  Douglas. — 
The  Magazine  of  History,  III;  77;  debate,  p.  77;  anecdotes.  Fine  description 
of  Lincoln’s  moral  power  in  debate;  New  York:  William  Abbott,  1905. 

Scrlpps,  John  Locke. — The  First  Published  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln; 
debate.  Chap.  VIII,  pp.  67-83;  good  narrative,  digest  and  selections;  The 
Canbrook  Press,  1900,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Schurz,  Carl. — Abraham  Lincoln.  Atlantic:'  67;  721;  debate,  732-734. 
General  sketch  with  analysis. 

Villard,  Henry. — Recollections  of  Lincoln.  Atlantic:  93;  165.  One  or  two 
quaint  anecdotes  of  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates. 

Washburne,  E.  B. — Abraham  Lincoln  in  Illinois.  North  American  Review: 
141;  309.  Sketch  of  Freeport  debate. 


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THE  DOUGLAS  MONUMENT 


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PAMPHLET  BINDERS 


This  is  No.  HI  1 525 

also  carried  In  stock  in  the  following  sizes 

WIDE  THICKNESS 


HIGH 

WIDE 

THICKNESS 

HIGH 

1523 

1 

inch** 

7 

inches 

Yl  inch 

1529 

12 

inches 

1524 

10 

64 

7 

4« 

a 

1530 

12 

t« 

1525 

1 

44 

6 

<« 

<• 

1932 

13 

44 

1526 

\S  14 

V 

^  « 

If 

1933 

14 

44 

1527 

10] 

2  44 

V 

H  “ 

44 

1934 

16 

44 

1523 

11 

4  44 

8 

<« 

44 

10 

11 

12 


<1 

If 

M 


41 

II 

14 


Other  sizes  made  to  order. 


MANUFACTURED  BY 

LIBRARY  BUREAU 

Division  of  REMINGTON  RAND  INC. 

Library  Supplies  of  all  kinds 


'X- 


UN'VEosrrv 


nn!LLlN°IS 


1*189210 Q 


